Ireland has about 880,000 people with hearing issues (deafened, and deaf), while about 1,077 people who use ISL are in the signing Deaf community, at 0.1% (zero point one per cent) of the total population.
During a recent chat in a Dublin hotel, two of the Sound Advice team were interrupted by an academic. He had a few questions about being deaf, and did we mind?
All in the line of duty, of course.
His first question was, should he use the term, ‘deaf’ or ‘hearing-impaired’, to refer to people who’re deaf? That was easy. We explained that “deaf” or “hard of hearing” are the best terms, as “hearing impaired” can imply that someone is impaired as a person.
The terms ‘deaf’ and ‘Deaf’ have different meanings and refer to people who are:
- hard-of-hearing (may have hearing-aids & find speech tricky to hear)
- partially-deaf (may use speech/lipreading and have hearing-aids)
- profoundly deaf (may wear hearing devices and lipread/speak, with a minority signing)
The terms ‘deafened’, ‘deaf’ and ‘Deaf’ were explained to our listener.
- ‘deafened’ refers to people who have lost hearing in life. Speaking and lipreading is the favored communication mode; very few may use ISL
- ‘deaf’ alludes to people born profoundly deaf, but who use speech and lip-reading for everyday communication (in English)
- ‘Deaf’ (with a capital D) refers to people who sign or use Irish sign language (ISL) to communicate and are part of the cultural Deaf community
Less-Savoury References:
1) “Deaf and Dumb”. Offensive, parallels the ‘R’ word in reference terms.
2) “Hearing-impaired”, “impediment” or “problems”. Not great – see above.
3) “The deaf” – better to write/say “deaf people”, or “people who’re deaf”.
The job done, a happy camper left the hotel, feeling he’d learned something.
Further Reading
- Deaf Awareness For Business and Service Providers
- Deaf People Don’t Always ‘Fit The Box’
- ‘Where Are All The Deaf People?’
- Talking Your Way Into A Relevant Graduate Job
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