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.

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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I figure it could be a regional thing as well. For example, in terms of accessibility “barrier-free” was completely foreign to me until I saw it used by Japan. I thought at first it was referring to actual barricades, but it does make sense to me now and I translate that term to my friends as “accessible.” So, I feel like other places may…

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“Challenge Breaker,” now that’s a term I could get behind, after all aren’t People with Disabilities given extra challenges to overcome? (Haha maybe I’ve played too many videogames 😆)