Did you know that in some instances, the word “deaf” should be capitalized?
Not sure if it’s an actual literary rule, but I know that the Deaf (when referring to them as a group or community) usually capitalize the word, as I just did.
My question is: Did you know about this? Not “do you do it?”, did you know about it?
This question arose from me reading this thread, where I found that a few in there apparently didn’t know that the word is oftentimes capitalized in the Deaf culture.
You could also answer: Do you know anyone (I’m defining “know” here by anyone you know close and personally) deaf? I’m betting those who have close deaf friends or family will have known this more so than people who don’t.
My grandmother was deaf, so I’d known about the capitalization of “Deaf”, in some references, for as long as I can remember. It never occurred to me that some people might not know about it.
Yes I know, although I consider it pretentious and if doing so myself I use quotes to indicate that; as in “Deaf culture”. We don’t capitalize something like “gay and lesbian culture” or “black culture” after all.
Didn’t know about it. Still not doing it. The Deaf will just have to join the REALTORs, womyn, and the people of East Timor on the list of those I’ve typographically offended.
I know about it. I’ve never had the need to write it though. I don’t really understand why it is supposed to be done though. My cousin is deaf and I don’t think I’ve seen her type/write deaf with a capital D.
That’s not quite the difference, though, is it? If someone says they are Deaf, doesn’t that mean they don’t want to hear? That they view their lack of hearing as part of who they are and not something that makes them inferior?
A deaf person may get a cochlear implant, but a Deaf person never would. At least, that’s what I was told when I first learned about the subject.
Yes, I did know it, and I know that the capital D usually refers to a cultural usage more than a medical one, but I’m not sure of the exact rules. I wish I did know the exact rules, because I would like to get it right.
Big D “Deaf” is generally applied to somebody who meets the ‘standard’ of PASS:
Politically active in deaf causes (things like better captioning on live broadcasts [especially local emergency broadcasts], more availability of interpreters, etc)
Audiological deafness (ranging from mild hearing loss to profoundly deaf)
Signing (uses ASL for communication, some acceptance of Pidgin Signed English, much less for Signed Exact English)
Socializes within the Deaf community (Attends Silent Events, etc)
Little d deaf is generally used to refer to hearing loss only.
There are people who are profoundly deaf who don’t qualify as Deaf, because they don’t want to associate with that world (don’t sign, identify selves as hard of hearing, prefer not to take part in deaf events, etc) and there are people with plenty of hearing who are Deaf (my ASL teacher has Deaf relatives, and is active and accepted in the community and politically active as well, but won’t consider herself Deaf until she starts to suffer hearing loss as she ages).
A combination of a modicum of ASL knowledge (spelling + 100 or so words), seeing Sound and Fury with a friend majoring in ASL, then ending up in a friendship with a Deaf activitst? Yeah, I do get picky about capitalizing “deaf” in certain circumstances.
It has changed rapidly in the last ten years. I have a lot of Deaf friends who are getting implants. Opposition to CI is really becoming an old person thing. Back when HAs were introduced, a lot of deafies were against them!