Someone that is late-deafened or HOH should not have too much of a problem with lip-reading. I've done it all my life and got by just fine, as long as someone doesn't talk to fast, turn their heads, moustaches, mumbles, etc.
I'm another one who proves this to be inaccurate - I was born deaf on my right side - and mild loss on the left (I also had a TON of ear infections as a child which meant for those weeks I would go from mild HL to mod/severe hearing loss on my left). Over the years my left side has gone from mild, to mild/mod ... and I still get occasional ear infections which push me more towards the mod/severe range.
In my case - most of the time as a child I had enough hearing that I was able to develop speech normally ...however I also have ALWAYS needed to speech-read to be able to understand things. I haven't taken any formal training in speech-reading, but by many people's assumptions I "should" be a fantastic speech-reader ... but I'm not. I'm ok - I get by, but I'm FAR from "fluent" and I find it stressful and frustrating if I have to speech-read 100% (with no audio input to "help fill in the gaps"). I do find that in general people who are Hoh ,d/Deaf and CODA/SODA etc are MUCH easier to understand than many hearing people (I think we're more careful about word selection and forming words so they are "Readable")
When it comes to speech-reading it really comes down to a number of important things:
1)Practice, Practice, Practice
2) A far bit of "natural/inherent speech-reading abilities" (ie - you find that you can "just do it")
3) Having clear speaking people to "practice" speech-reading from (especially if they are family & friends you see frequently - who are patient & understanding when it comes to speech-reading mistakes)
4) Some amount of basic instruction, preferably in person, however books/the internet works too
5) Practice, Practice, Practice
I know a number of people ( hearing, Hoh and d/Deaf) who are natural speech-readers. They are just are able to SEE SPEECH much more easily than most people - without any training or intensive "practice"...
On the other hand, I also know MANY Hoh & d/Deaf who really really struggle with speech-reading even after intensive instruction & practice!
It's important that people -
especially those who are Hoh/d/Deaf themselves NOT make sweeping comments or generalizations about the ability of Hoh & d/Deaf people's abilities to speech-read ... in the end we only hurt ourselves by leading Hoh/d/Deaf people as well as hearing people to believe that Hoh/d/Deaf people are all - or even
mostly - good or excellent speech-readers... leading them to assume that if they encounter a Hoh/d/Deaf person who can't speech-read it is somehow Hoh/d/Deaf person's
fault or they aren't "trying hard enough".
Speech-reading is much more of an Art, than a science ... it's a talent that some people posses - much like a talent for painting, sculpting, dance, music, or anything else. While it IS a skill that may be refined with practice and instruction ... it's simply not realistic to expect that all people who study speech-reading will become proficient at it ... any more than it is to expect that someone who receives instruction in painting will become as skilled as Van Gogh, DiVinci, Michelangelo etc.
for the Cochlear Implant operation at Sunnybroook, Toronto. 
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