Originally Posted by Interpretrator

Deaf people who grow up with no or limited access to language (i.e. their parents never learn to sign, nor do they provide English instruction via Cued Speech or other methods) have a very tough time learning to read and write. There is a higher incidence of illiteracy among deaf people for this reason.

However, if you put a hearing person in this position, it would be the same story. The issue is not deaf or hearing, but rather what kind of language development a child experiences. It's simply a sad fact that many more deaf children are deprived of language during the critical period than hearing children.

I teach English writing and grammar to underprepared deaf college students and there is a definite correlation between the ability of my students to assimilate new information into their writing and how much language exposure they had as kids.