Deaf vs. Hearing Loss vs. Hearing Impaired vs. Hard of Hearing
I love this post - it says what I’ve always wanted to yell to the whole wide (ignorant) world.
For the record, I describe myself as hearing-impaired to new people I meet. I am Deaf to Deaf people. I am hardly ever deaf or hard of hearing though.
The debate on which terms to use: deaf, hearing loss, and so on, has been around as long as deafness. Political correctness aside (these terms should all be fine anyway), each one conveys different connotations. The one that may not be politically correct is “hearing impaired” because some see “impaired” as implying a disability. When I say “hearing impaired,” it’s out of laziness because “hard of hearing” takes more effort to say. Same amount of syllables, but still I find it easier to say “hearing impaired.”
Read on…
(The rest of this blog looks real interesting. I’ll be browsing through the archives.)
Hi, I came across your blog while browsing through Technorati today. While I am not “deaf,” “hard of hearing,” or “hearing impaired,” I still found great value in reading your post and the original article that you linked to. I never realized there was this kind of debate over the terms (which, I admit I used to use interchangeably without thinking about it). Now I’ll definitely have greater sensitivity regarding this issue. Thank you!
Comment by TheBizofKnowledge — August 7, 2006 @ 1:14 pm