Thank you for sharing your perspective. 🙂 I wondered if there was similar distinctions between people living with different hearing challenges. I guess it is a similar struggle, but it’s also nice to see the culture bloom from it and hopefully help raise each other up in the process.

I’ve always struggled with what kind of terminology to refer to myself as. I prefer “unilateral hearing impairment” (which means deaf in one ear, and I have an impairment in my “good” ear as well), but most people don’t know what that means. If I say Deaf, hearies will generally think I’m “completely” deaf, and until recently I’ve…

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Great discussion topic, as ever it underlines how powerful language is.

The uk govt has guidance on inclusive language:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-communication/inclusive-language-words-to-use-and-avoid-when-writing-about-disability

As you will see, the language is not necessarily fixed and needs to sensitive to…

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Likewise to what Josh said, I wasn’t sure if people living with hearing impairments saw the word “Deaf” as a positive term. It is interesting to see the word integrated into the culture. I saw this a bit when I was researching for the article I wrote on Accessible Japan (Starbucks: A Sign of Change, and Understanding in Sign, link below) but…

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For more then the first half of my life I referred to myself as “handicapped,” I do have a few memories of it being used in a derogatory manner (mostly in my youth by other kids, who were probably lashing out for other reasons), so I’m happy with the change. Nevertheless, as an adult now if someone refers to my disability as a “handicap”…

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