Hearing Impaired Term?

hi! this is first notification - of today's responses I've got in decades - have AD changed something?

Etoile said:
I am not profoundly deaf, but I don't consider myself a "form of hearie" either. I am HOH. Can you clarify this for me?
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sorry, I meant 'level', from severely hard of hearing to hard of hearing, oral to almost well-spoken, hearing loss to elder, etc. etc. etc.

forgive me for answering this late.

re: some of you fear if you yourself mentioned "I'm deaf," they'll think you're deaf completely even with hearing aids.. glad I asked. never thought of that. but, maybe I never thought of that because when I look at the person and s/he (I have met plenty) has HAs on and is saying she's deaf, I cannot really say "oh, then why do you have hearing aids on if you're deaf all the way," you know? however, if you don't have HAs on at that time of the question, would you be able to tell "I can hear but only with HAs, so I'm, basically, deaf at the moment now."?

I guess it depends on the attitude of person and its stupidity who asks you. you shall not fear that.
 
Pinky said:
I have a question about hearing impaired and deaf/hoh between. Do you think Deaf and hoh are offense?? How about hearing impaired word is offense?? I am little confusing. Because my cousin think "deaf" is offense it make her angry.
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I was house at a client house once ,I was a health aid.My client daughter was there talking to her dad,my client, and he was talking loud to his daughter. She got up set and said to her dad ,I am not deaf like __ stop yelling at me.
I got upset with the daughter and told I was not deaf , that I was HOH . I was told by doctors if I was deaf I would not be able to hear at all. And if I was deaf I would not get upset about being called deaf. I do not think I never been called hearing impaired , I rather be called HOH .
 
I am profoundly deaf, so I identifty myself as deaf, even when I wear my CI I still say I'm deaf, since it doesn't change. Yes, I can hear better with my CI on, but it doesn't really change the fact I'm still deaf
 
freckles said:
question for profound deafies (all forms of hearies opinions are welcome too), sorry if this was brought up before - do show me the thread if so.

question: I understand hearing impaired is politically corrected term, do you find it offensive? makes you feel really 'disabled'? psychologically disabled? or just fine? if so or whatlike, why, etc.

and by the way, while I think this is a sticky question, do you, people who can hear at least a bit well (with or with no hearing aids), do you consider yourself deaf or hardofhearing?

eager to hear all, diverse thoughts!
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Oh Man,
Some people are just way to sensitive. Nothing is wrong with hearing impaired, it just means that your hearing is "impaired" What overly sensitive people get out of words is entirely their fault. hearing impaired just means your hearing is impaired and nothing else.

I hear somewhat okay with them on and nothing with them off. I need a bed shaker to wake me up at night.
 
cdaigle430 said:
Oh Man,
Some people are just way to sensitive. Nothing is wrong with hearing impaired, it just means that your hearing is "impaired" What overly sensitive people get out of words is entirely their fault. hearing impaired just means your hearing is impaired and nothing else.

I hear somewhat okay with them on and nothing with them off. I need a bed shaker to wake me up at night.
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If you are ok to be labeled impaired as a person then all is well with you.

For me, I dont like it but doesnt mean I am sensitive. I dont want hearing people thinking I am impaired in any way and treat me like someone who is inferior to them. It has happened all of my life when I told people I was hearing impaired. I stopped using that term a long time ago and I noticed a difference in people's attitudes towards me.

words can have a powerful effect on a lot of people.
 
melissa said:
The jury's still out on this one for me. If I say I'm deaf, people say- but you're not deaf, you can hear/hear me without your hearing aids in. I barely know any sign language, and I was mostly mainstreamed at school, so I don't feel that I can 'claim' the label of deaf. My hearing loss is so varied that it's difficult to explain without just showing someone an audiogram and explaining what it all means. I think people think that, with a deaf person, if you shout loud enough they will eventually hear you.

If I say hard of hearing it makes me feel elderly, and like I've got a mild loss. As if I should wear those terrible in the ear/in the canal aids they offer for sale with photos of smiling grandparents in leaflets.

I used to say hearing impaired but since visiting AD it grates on me. I wear glasses but don't say visually impaired, or height impaired, or male impaired! It doesn't convey the accomodations people need to make for me. It doesn't convey when I'm really trying and struggling and still can't understand. I think people use deaf to mean someone with a severe/profound loss, who cannot hear speech without aids- but sometimes, even with aids I might as well be functionally deaf because I don't understand the sounds I'm hearing.

So, I really can't decide. None of these terms seem to fit.
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What most people don't understand is that "deaf" occurs on a continuum. One does not have to have absolutely no perception of sound to be deaf. Hearing impaired is a term originated by the hearing to appear to be less offensive and more PC than "deaf." The actually population affected did not have any say so in the use of the term, and the hearing have managed to come up with a term that is more offensive than the one the deaf have been using for centuries. Just like they mucked around with ASL and came up with MCEs that are linguistically confusing. They seem to keep trying to fix something that isn't broken. Why? Of course, we all know that the hearing know better what the deaf need than the deaf themselves do.:roll:
 
kokonut said:
Just say, "I have a hearing loss" and not worry about terms. Or just pick one, and if they have a problem then that means it is their problem and not yours.
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That is still putting the focus on the negative.
 
shel90 said:
If you are ok to be labeled impaired as a person then all is well with you.

For me, I dont like it but doesnt mean I am sensitive. I dont want hearing people thinking I am impaired in any way and treat me like someone who is inferior to them. It has happened all of my life when I told people I was hearing impaired. I stopped using that term a long time ago and I noticed a difference in people's attitudes towards me.

words can have a powerful effect on a lot of people.
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Absolutely. The wording can color their perception of deaf people overall. The wording needs to be strengths based. Deaf does that. Any phrasing that contains a negative: impaired, loss, weakness, etc. does not provide a strengths based perspective. It indicates pathology, which is right in line with medicalization of deafness.
 
jillio said:
What most people don't understand is that "deaf" occurs on a continuum. One does not have to have absolutely no perception of sound to be deaf. Hearing impaired is a term originated by the hearing to appear to be less offensive and more PC than "deaf." The actually population affected did not have any say so in the use of the term, and the hearing have managed to come up with a term that is more offensive than the one the deaf have been using for centuries. Just like they mucked around with ASL and came up with MCEs that are linguistically confusing. They seem to keep trying to fix something that isn't broken. Why? Of course, we all know that the hearing know better what the deaf need than the deaf themselves do.:roll:
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Those hearing in the medical field are famous for that.
 
jillio said:
Of course, we all know that the hearing know better what the deaf need than the deaf themselves do.:roll:
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How terribly audistic of you, Jillio :giggle:


shel90 said:
Those hearing in the medical field are famous for that.
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Agreed for the majority, Shel, but not all. There are a few enlightened medical professionals out there.
 
DeafDoc1 said:
How terribly audistic of you, Jillio :giggle:




Agreed for the majority, Shel, but not all. There are a few enlightened medical professionals out there.
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:lol:

And, yes, there are a few, thank Gawd! And I have a feeling there are more that would be willing to become enlightened if given the opportunity.
 
cdaigle430 said:
Oh Man,
Some people are just way to sensitive. Nothing is wrong with hearing impaired, it just means that your hearing is "impaired" What overly sensitive people get out of words is entirely their fault. hearing impaired just means your hearing is impaired and nothing else.
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nothing wrong? ...then tell me, why isn't it politically corrected term anymore?

re sensitivity, like shel said, I think impaired word itself is sensitive--how many people do you think will think once they hear "hearing impaired"? in my experience, I would be treated differently.
 
I have seen two different perspectives of the meaning "impaired" among hearing people I talk with. Some have viewed "impaired" as something debilitating, like that I'm not capable of functioning because I'm impaired. Others see it as less threatening than "deaf" (I'm not saying "less threatening" of my own words - just relaying what others have said) so the same "impaired" term for those is easier for them to deal with. I think it really depends entirely on the person. For myself, in the deaf community, I never use the word hearing-impaired to describe myself. But like at a job interview, I find using "hearing impaired" goes over smoother than "deaf" ....
 
DeafDoc1 said:
How terribly audistic of you, Jillio :giggle:




Agreed for the majority, Shel, but not all. There are a few enlightened medical professionals out there.
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I wish I could have the opportunity to meet those enlighted professionals in my lifetime.

Thanks for the correction. :ty:
 
whatdidyousay! said:
My niece is audistic ,and there is nothing to giggle about!
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I wonder if your niece is autistic, which is Not something to giggle about, I agree. I was joking by saying Jillio was practicing audism, or discrimination against Deaf and signers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Sorry for the confusion.
 
I remember someone saying 'legging impaired' somewhere, as they were having leg/knee surgery. I still wish there was a word that had better connotations for me than 'hard of hearing'- for me that denotes a mild loss, maybe something you wouldn't wear aids for. People used to say 'partially deaf', but I'm not sure where I stand with that. People either accommodate me by doing what I ask for consistently, or part of the time, or not at all- I don't know if the wording I use would ever change that.
 
Hi. I have a severe to profound hearing loss in both ears and wear Phonak Naida V UPs hearing aids. I can not stand the term "hard of hearing" it sounds like a really old term for hearing loss. It seems more like a term that older people say a lot when referring to their age related hearing loss later in life. My grandfather used that term. lol I think it sounds silly.
I call myself "hearing impaired" since without my hearing aids on, my hearing is severely impaired. I not completely deaf without my hearing aids on, so calling myself Deaf wouldn't seem accurate. I grew up with hearing loss my whole life, its more severe now though.
I am also visually impaired. I use this term for my visual impairment since I am not totally blind, I have use of my right eye only, and I have low vision (20/1600) with glasses. Technically I am called Deaf-Blind by professionals in the deaf-blindness field, but I tell them I am hearing impaired and visually impaired. Not Deaf-Blind since most people assume that you are completely Deaf, and totally Blind. I am used to using the word "impaired" since its a common term used at the TxSchool for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

:) TSF
 
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