Deaf Identity When You're Not Deaf

A lot of HoH people don't feel like we fit into either category...but I have experience with that in other ways, being nonbinary and bi. And, for that matter, pagan - I'm a religious minority, but as a white Hellenic polytheist I know I don't face the discrimination that Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, etc. people, or pagans of color, do, especially under Trump.

And I'm also christopagan specifically, so a lot of things about paganism don't fit me, and I think it's important to acknowledge that I don't face prejudice to the same degree other minorities do.

But just as hearing people don't accept me for being HoH, Christians don't accept me for being pagan.

So I (tentatively) id as culturally Deaf. But if asked, I would say I'm HoH, not deaf.
 
For a long time, I thought I was Hearing. But, I use hearing aids in both ears. I learned ASL and PSE from people in the Deaf Community. Signing is a gift that Deaf people have shared with me.

I realized rather recently that I am not Hearing. I am HoH, and I don't mind saying that. A Deaf person in a group of Deaf people I was with recently helped me feel good enough about myself to admit that.

It felt good to be open to finding myself.
 
RoseRodent said:
The bit I find awkward is when you're "severe" because that doesn't work with "deaf" I don't think. People know that when you're saying"mild" you mean that you're a little deaf. But the adjective "severely" to describe something normally means it's worse than someone who is just that thing - severely ill, severely affected. So "severely deaf" makes it sound like you are more deaf than someone who is just "deaf". But I absolutely loathe the term "hard of hearing", firstly because it's a bit meaningless, if never describe myself as being hard of walking, I've never heard of hard of seeing. But mostly because when you use that term to most people they have thoughts of their gran who needed the phone a little loud and the TV turned up, they don't get it. When I told someone I was HOH once they were amazed that meant I actually wore hearing aids!

So I try to match what others are thinking: at the Deaf club I'm hoh, other places I'm deaf. Because I've got missing frequencies rather than one flat average that I don't hear, I get worried people will call me out, point out that I heard something so I can't be this or that. I have the misfortune to be able to hear things like barking dogs but not speech, my husband snoring but not a police car with sirens on driving directly behind me! All the annoying noises are just fine.
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I'm severely Deaf. It's hearing loss in the 70-90 decibel range. It goes mild, moderate, severe, profound. The OP is not using it as an adjective rather describing the technical term for her/his hearing loss.
 
BecLak said:
As we all know, 'Severe' is an audiological term for a level of hearing loss. Audiological terms are generally frowned upon within Deaf Culture due to it being labels imposed by the Hearing. I know it all too well. Even though, when at age 11, my audiologist told my mother that my hearing loss was 'severe', as soon as it was discovered I could 'lip-read' (speech-read) well, I was immediately labelled as HOH. Their 'solution' was to 'fix it' with hearing aids and intensive speech therapy. I grew up indoctrinated under the labels of HOH and partially-deaf. Among hearing people, I for a long time I referred to myself as 'severely-deaf' because their concept of Deaf is 100% zilch, nada, nothing. As I have become more familiar with the Deaf Community since joining AD in 2009 and have since been to many Deaf events and began learning and using Sign Language more and more frequently and building up my fluency. I have embraced my identity as Deaf, because I know now, since I was born, Deaf culture actually had always been ingrained in me but I had unknowingly been deprived of my natural language. I finally can be myself now. Losing those audist labels has been slow and sometimes tedious, especially the 'Oral Success' one. I advocate for my right to Sign Language and I continue to fight for it (and not just for myself)
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Oops I missed seeing this post, sorry1
 
This is often a funny situation for people who are hard of hearing, whether mild or severe. I'm HOH (hard of hearing) to my hearing friends but Bi-Deaf to my Deaf friends because I spend so much time communicating through sign and English and flow between Deaf and Hearing world. I have moderate-severe hearing loss and communicate through sign and verbal English. i was born with my hearing loss but didn't know sign language or Deaf culture even existed till i was 10 years old, would you believe it! After becoming part of the community, I felt a strong connection but never quite sure to embrace it because I wasn't sure i was "Deaf enough" because I felt I learned sign and Deaf culture too late, and that I could pass off as hearing as hearing people always complimented my speech being clear.
There really is no "one way" to be Deaf, it really depends on how you see yourself and what you feel works best for you.
 
appleeater said:
The stance of the National Deaf Children's Society where I live is that all children with hearing loss are referred to as deaf because it's a positive identity, rather than a negative one.

By the time I became a teenager, I realised that I wasn't really allowed to be 'deaf' because I had a moderate hearing loss, rather than severe or profound and began to refer to myself as having 'hearing loss' which seemed only a step down from 'hearing impairment'. Eventually, I rather begrudgingly came around to calling myself 'hard of hearing'.

Anyway, I was discussing deaf identity after Deaf Club when some of us went to the pub and a few of them agreed that I don't accept (my) deaf identity. Which I was a bit put out by, considering I was rather unwillingly forced out of it. They advised that I register myself as deaf with the county council, if eligible.

They're also very curious about how much I can hear and the last few meet ups having been asking me all sorts of questions such as 'do you listen to the radio?', 'can you hear a phone?' and having my wife talk behind my back from various distances to see how far I can hear.

I'm tempted to go back to referring to myself as deaf (or perhaps partially deaf) because I end up having to explain what 'hard of hearing' is anyway. But I don't want to steal other people's identity, as it were. Or make things more difficult when hearing people expect that deaf people can hear as well as I do.

I'm pretty on top of Deaf culture here (though it does seem most people here are less extreme in their views - indeed there was even a video showing at the club about that) but my signing, owing to disuse, is 'good' rather than fluent.

What are you thoughts?
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You are entitled to identify with whatever makes you comfortable!
 
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