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This thread reminds me of the debate we have in the blind community in regards to the terms "visually impaired" and "blind." There are some people who take a *very* strong dislike towards being called "blind" when they have usable residual vision. In my case, I was born totally blind, so I've not had to deal with this issue.
However, in regards to my hearing, I was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss at age 3 and started wearing hearing aids at age 15. I wasn't introduced to the term "hard of hearing" until my hearing loss reached the severe-profound stage and I attended my local deafblind center for training. It was there that I also learned how to identify myself as "deafblind."
Now that I'm able to hear with CIs, I still call myself deafblind (instead of blind) but indicate to laypeople that I'm hard of hearing with my CIs on and deaf without them.
To those who work in the Deaf community or have experience in the field of deafness, I indicate that I'm a deafblind or Deaf CI user.
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Hear Again
Left ear - Nucleus 24 Contour Advance with Freedom BTE
Implanted: 12/22/04 Activated: 1/18/05
Right ear - Nucleus Freedom
Implanted: 2/1/06 Activated: 3/1/06
Deafblind/Postlingual
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