I agree with Caesar’s Ghost on this. I mean, technically, I’m hard of hearing and of course, without the hearing aids, I’m completely deaf. But I really don’t care what I’m called. Seriously, there are alot more worse names that I’ve been called than “hearing impaired”. Hearing the words “hearing impaired” is a blessing compare to what I’ve been called before.
I’m part of the deaf and hard of hearing community and we honestly don’t care if you use the term hearing impaired. I just ask for a preference, if they don’t want to be called hearing impaired, I just say hard of hearing.
I have a good video (in spite of it’s name): Signing Made Easy! It features actor Anthony Natale, and will teach you quite a lot of basics. I work in retail and wanted to learn enough to be able to greet people, ask how I can help, etc. Watching this video and practicing along with it got me off to a good start.
It’s distributed by American Home Treasures, and I got it at one of the big video stores.
The class I’m going to take in the fall requires six hours of, I guess you would call it community service, in the deaf community. I’ll probably do more on my own, plus I’m hoping that I can work with a deaf child or children in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program once I get more knowledgeable.
As far as impaired goes, not to get too technical, but from the Merriam Dictionary:
im·paired
Diminished, damaged, or weakened: an impaired sense of smell.
Functioning poorly or incompetently: a driver so tired as to be impaired.
Having a physical or mental disability: an impaired child in need of special assistance.
I can see why the second two definitions might be a bit offensive in terms of using incompetent and mental disability (since deafness isn’t either of those) although those examples really don’t apply to deafness, but as far as the first definition and parts of the second and third, I don’t really see those as having a negative connotation - it just means something doesn’t work well. My mother is deaf in one ear and her doctor has even referred to her as hearing-impaired.
Still, I’ll be more careful in the future - thanks for the heads-up.
summerbreeze, I should look for that. I have the computer program that has short videos on it, but I think I’d enjoy a video, too.
I’m really looking forward to starting the class. I love to learn new things and I’ve been really thrilled to get back to classes.
Black people are not impaired, I doubt we would refer to them as ‘white impaired’.
If someone wants to refer to themselves as impaired that fine with but I wouldn’t go out calling them impaired. We have several deaf centers called the "Deaf & Hard of Hearing Center’…
I don’t think I’ve ever used ‘hearing impaired’ for deaf. I’ve used it for hard of hearing people. Deaf is deaf - I realize that. I referred to it as hearing-impaired in my initial post because I think the majority of students who use sign language in this county are hard-of-hearing, not deaf - I don’t think there’s a deaf students program at every school, so more than likely, I’ll be working with hard of hearing students.
I don’t quite get the correlation between the black/white thing - you’re comparing apples to oranges here.
Gotcha. You’re deaf. Not hearing-impaired or hard of hearing. I started this thread as a way to get advice, not a way to get admonished for using what you seem to consider a politically incorrect term. I’ve had other people in the thread give me an opinion that differs from yours - others who are also deaf or hard of hearing. Great. I’ll keep all of it in mind.
Yo, handy, you’re not the spokesperson for the entire deaf/hard of hearing/hearing impaired/people who know anything about deafness/auditorally challenged/handiCAPABLE or whatever kick ya wanna be on community.
It’s up to individuals to decide what they want to be called. I use hearing impaired 99% of the time and I’m DEAF, baby, over 100dB loss bilaterally. Failed CI implantee, the works. Never once have I thought a statement of fact (my hearing is impaired) is an insult. This PC crap makes me wanna barf.
avabeth don’t worry about terminology so much, it’s not really much an issue to most people.
I taught Deaf and Hard of Hearing kids for about 13 years… Right now I’m teaching Sign language…
I’d recommend that you make sure you go to Deaf events whenever you can… Learning Signs from a book is OK for the basics, but using it in real life is much tougher…
As far as the Deaf/HI thing goes… The Deaf community who signs generally wants to be called Deaf because they see themselves as a culture… The term hearing impaired is usually used by people who either don’t sign, or do not socialize in the Deaf Community…
The term hearing impaired was not an invention of the Deaf community - Deaf people called themselves Deaf for a LONG time before the term hearing impaired was invented… and from what I can tell, hearing impaired was the politically correct term… a la visually impaired, physically challenged, etc…
I think that’s part of the reason Deaf people usually aren’t too happy with the term H.I… It was a label put on them from outside of their community…
As you’ve quickly found out, learning ASL also involves learning about Deaf Culture and the Deaf Community… as well as the many people who become deafened later in life or are Hard of Hearing…
It’s a fascinating language, and a fascinating community…
