In the deaf community some people have a preference of how their deafness is labelled. We have gone from the most hideous term 'Deaf and Dumb' right the way through to being just Deaf. I will go through some of the commonly known terms for you to be aware of.
Deaf, hard of hearing
The current terms used by the deaf community today are deaf and hard of hearing. In 1991, the World Federation of the Deaf voted to use the official terms deaf and hard of hearing. The National Association of the Deaf supports these terms, and they are used by most organisations involved with the deaf community.
Hard of hearing usually refers to people who have enough hearing to communicate and feel comfortable communicating through spoken language. There are no specific hearing levels or personal characteristics that determine whether a person will function as hard of hearing.
Each deaf or hard of hearing person is unique in his or her hearing status and ability to communicate using spoken language.
Hearing impaired
This is a commonly used term 'hearing impaired'. While it is not as blatantly insulting as some of the older terms, many individuals dislike it because it describes deaf people based on what they cannot do.
Deaf and dumb, deaf-mute (ARGHHHHH!!)
Deaf people themselves have never adopted these terms or considered them acceptable. They have finally faded from use. Although I have been in situations where I have been referred to as Deaf and Dumb. I cannot tell you how little I felt when I realised that those people thought it was ACCEPTABLE! Shocking.
deaf, Deaf
deaf with a lowercase "d" is usually an audiological description of a person's hearing level. It usually often refers to a person who may struggle to use their hearing for the understanding of everyday communication. Being deaf does not mean the person can not hear anything at all. Not all people who are deaf identify themselves with, or participate in, Deaf culture.
Deaf with an uppercase "D" often refer to deaf adults and children who share the use of Sign Language and Deaf culture-common values, behavioural traits, traditions, and views of themselves and others (Padden & Humphries, 1988). People who identify with Deaf culture and describe themselves as Deaf may also have a range of hearing levels.
It is important that we never assume what level of hearing a Deaf person may have. We are all unique and we all communicate in a variety of ways. I personally state that I am Deaf with a capital D as I am profoundly deaf and I use sign language with spoken English (a mixture of SSE and BSL), but some Deaf people may disagree with me as they may argue I have speech and I have a cochlear implant so therefore I should not say I am Deaf.
The way I see it, is ... I am Deaf full stop. :)
For the record - I was just telling my partner what I was writing about and she says 'by their name?!' she thinks she is so funny! LOL xx
A really interesting post... Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteNice start Faye :)
ReplyDeleteI have my own blog too, mostly about gaming and nerdy stuff, some deaf stuff too, and it's fun :D
(It's Clare M-J btw!)
Hey, that is cool. I only started doing this today, so it is a learning curve. I am trying to work out how to add buttons for pinterest etc and cant do it!!
Deletecheck if you have widgit, if not use image or text box, i can give you the code for that if needed
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