I bought the Z Shield because I work with elderly people who are hard of hearing and the normal masks we are all wearing right now really impede communication; they muffle speech and prevent lip-reading. The Z Shield helps a bit with those issues. The sound is still somewhat muffled and my own voice bounced off and sounded strange to me. But for people who rely on lip-reading, it's an improvement over an opaque cotton mask. It's really only good if the wearer is stationary; once you move around, it tips over.