A Google search for the term ‘hearies’ will net you 515 results, enough to show that the term is indeed used.
Is the term ‘hearing people’ a grammatically correct vice for ‘deaf people’?
I believe the question merits asking. The makeup of the term ‘hearies’ seem to be easily susceptible to falling over the line of appropriate usage. i.e. it’s a slippery slope to discrimination.
Just curious, really.
There is at least one deaf person here who will be along soon to give an excellent insight, but in the meantime I can tell you what I learned when I took Deaf/Blind Intervention in College and while working at the Bob Rumbal Centre for the Deaf on Toronto, ON.
‘Hard of Hearing’ people have difficulty hearing things.
‘deaf’ people can’t hear things.
‘Deaf’ people can’t hear things and they are part of an incredibly unique (and fascinating) culture.
‘Hearing’ people can hear things. (Usually used by deaf people as the term for non-deaf people; “Tom, is he hearing?”)
I have never heard/seen ‘hearies’ before, but I worked in this field quite a while ago. It’s possible that I read the sign as ‘hearing’ and nowadays ‘hearie’ woud be the better interpretation. -I don’t know.
I have found one other reference to it on the board FYI (made by Handy)