A lipspeaker is a hearing person trained to repeat a speaker's message to lipreaders accurately, without using their voice. They produce clearly the shape of words, the flow, rhythm and phrasing of natural speech and repeat the stress as used by the speaker, bit without voice. The lipspeaker also uses facial expression, natural gesture and finger spelling (if requested) to aid the lipreader's understanding.

Messages which are too fast for lipreading may have to be pared down by the lipspeaker, who is not more than a sentence behind the speaker. Many people speak up to 200 words a minute; lipspeaking, therefore, requires a high level of concentration. If two people speak at the same time, neither message can be passed on. The lipspeaker will use some finger spelling if the lipreader requests this.