Like being gay, right?
But there’s nothing inherently wrong with being gay–it’s society’s reaction to it that makes it tough. Being deaf is hard because you’re missing a sense. You might not hear a car horn or someone yelling at you to get out of the way. You’re missing out on hearing music. You can live a fulfilling life while being deaf, sure, but if given the chance to experience these things, why wouldn’t you want them?
Most Deaf people can “get” music. They listen to it very, very loudly. 
Like blindness, it is usually not a total loss.
And there isn’t anything inherently wrong with being deaf, either.
That kind of attitude is why there’s deaf backlash at people who think then need to be fixed.
But if you’re completely deaf, even listening to music really loudly isn’t going to help.
I’m not saying deaf people are bad or horribly flawed, but they do have a disability. I mean, by that rationale, it’s insulting to tell anyone they have a problem because it could translate as they need to be “fixed.” Is it wrong to treat being blind or not being able to walk like it’s a disability because it might make some people feel as though they’re flawed?
The ones I know don’t mind being told they’re deaf. They’ve embraced being Deaf. Now, hearing impaired or what have you are things they don’t like to be called. Most don’t feel flawed and they don’t want to be fixed.
Q to both previous two posters: The deaf people you’re talking about think they don’t need to be fixed or that deafness doesn’t need to be fixed?
Of course there is. Not in a “you’re not a worthwhile person” way, just in a “humans are meant to be able to hear” way. No one would say there’s nothing inherently wrong with not having arms, or we’d still be popping thalidomide.
No but kind of like being dumb.
Being gay doesn’t physically prevent you from doing anything. Deaf people can’t hear. I promise you that this is not a difficult concept.
And certainly no one is saying they should have to. But that doesn’t mean that wishing deafness on babies when there’s an alternative isn’t profoundly fucked up.
But they *are *hearing impaired. If you can’t hear, you’re hearing impaired. It doesn’t mean you aren’t a good, actualized, capable person. You have a flaw, but it’s not a reflection on you as a person.
Do you think that if a person doesn’t have the use of their legs, that they aren’t disabled? I agree that calling them crippled, for example, is insensitive, but they do have a disability.
And I agree with DianaG. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a deaf person, as a person. In terms of healthiness, yes, they do have a defect. It may not be pleasant for the person to admit to, but I do think it’s the truth.
Gay people aren’t damaged.
Yes, there IS something inherently wrong. They are damaged. They are missing a capability that healthy humans have, therefore they are not healthy.
Of course not; the people telling them to believe that have jobs and positions that depend on deaf people believing that being deaf is something desirable instead of what it is, a sensory deficit. These so-called advocates for the deaf have realized that if the disorder is cured they are out of a job, so they have set out to manufacture a fake cultural identity; to convince the victims of deafness that they are not people with a medical condition but that they are “Deaf” with a capital letter and that attempts to cure them are some variation on genocide.
It’s as if iron lung manufacturers set out to convince people that vaccinating against polio was an evil attempt to destroy the"culture of the Lunged".
Let’s have a roll call on “who knows a Deaf person or people?”
CP=Yes, several.
A lot of the Deaf people I know are OK with the concept of deafness as a medical defect. No, they can’t hear trucks coming. Yes, they are missing out on music. They know that. The issue is that deafness is seen as a social defect as well. Deaf people are hard to communicate with and miss out on a heap of social interaction. Sometimes even a basic task like buying a train tickeet can get horribly confused. Yet when Deaf people are dealing with each other, or hearing people who sign, all these difficulties just vanish. Clearly, for Deaf people, things are much better when they and other people can use sign language, and respect the things that go along with that (like line of sight and getting people’s attention). But most of the time, hearing people aren’t interested in signing, and just want the deaf people to be more like hearing people.
There is a long history of deaf children being denied sign language, being punished for signing and being forced into spoken language. Before I started working with Deaf people, I thought that deak kids automatically learned sign language, and so did their parents, and it was OK. It’s not like that at all. Hearing parents want hearing children, and they have doctors and educators telling them that sign will interfere with the children learning to speak or lip-read. There is enormous pressure on many deaf kids to not be deaf, to act like a hearing kid, regardless of how frustrating or difficult it might be for them. I think that is the attitude that Deaf people object to.