What's a difference between deaf and hard-of-hearing?

RedheadGrrl said:
My mother labeled me HoH bec she said I speak, and hear with my HA. I respected her but I labeled myself as Deaf bec I know ASL, Deaf culture, involved with Deaf community, went to Deaf school in my whole life, have Deaf friends.
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I know what you mean. It should be a personal decision on how one describes him/herself. Even though you speak and hear well with your hearing aid. Some mothers are quite protective of their deaf sons or daughters even go so far as to exaggerate, lie or brag about their children's ability to hear and/or understand words, or the ability to use the phone without any problem with anyone even though their child may have a profound hearing loss and uses his/her HA. Maybe some parents are in denial of what their children can or cannot do and thus label them accordingly?

I know. I know. This is an oooold thread. Just found this thread on people's labeling preferrences. But when it comes down to it I'm just a person who happens to have a hearing loss.
 
I've been hard of hearing and I've been deaf and according deaf is worse then hh but there both I can't you.
 
I'm just saying that from my that I couldn't hear either way it was named.

No I myself haven't become part of a Deaf community. I've never even met a deaf person.
 
If you want to identify yourself as Hard of Hearing which is fine, no problem. If you don't want to be label as deaf, then it is also fine. We still don't like the word "hearing impaired" at all. So you have to pick one out of the two "deaf or hard of hearing". Both Deaf and Hard of Hearing can go and join into the Deaf communities if you can sign ASL. That is the reason why we are more comfortable with ASL to communicate with each other. We just don't want too much into the hearing communities if we don't understand what they say. So we are pretty much comfortable being in the Deaf communities. If you can handle understanding hearing people in the hearing communities with lipreading (speechreading). Then that is the way you want your life to be in the hearing communities. It is up to you. No one tell you to stop. :cool2:
 
It is true that you can choose HoH and deaf/Deaf and to 'just be yourself yet on the other hand, everyone needs to feel that sense of belonging. For those who can hear some, but are not totally hearing /or severely deaf but not totally deaf whichever way you want to put it, you are in a 'no man's land'. Mainstream hearing force you to be like them, yet you are not; and yet they don't recognise you as Deaf either. The Deaf community however are more accepting and understanding of the difficulties you face so I vote that anyone with a hearing loss at all who are comfortable and who have accepted their deafness whatever the degree, should be allowed to call themselves and be recognised as deaf/Deaf and should be given the opportunity to learn sign language as if it was their primary language instead of having to pay expensive classes to learn.
 
BecLak said:
It is true that you can choose HoH and deaf/Deaf and to 'just be yourself yet on the other hand, everyone needs to feel that sense of belonging. For those who can hear some, but are not totally hearing /or severely deaf but not totally deaf whichever way you want to put it, you are in a 'no man's land'. Mainstream hearing force you to be like them, yet you are not; and yet they don't recognise you as Deaf either. The Deaf community however are more accepting and understanding of the difficulties you face so I vote that anyone with a hearing loss at all who are comfortable and who have accepted their deafness whatever the degree, should be allowed to call themselves and be recognised as deaf/Deaf and should be given the opportunity to learn sign language as if it was their primary language instead of having to pay expensive classes to learn.
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This x1000.

I identify myself as deaf. I have identified as such since my loss was at the severe level, and it has been dipping into the profound level (my audiogram looks totally bizarre btw). I have trouble understanding speech in general, but if I'm not lip reading, I might catch one word in a whole conversation.

Basically, to me, you're deaf when you start not being able to REALLY understand speech. If you can hear environmental sounds and such with aids, that's great, but it's not anything that useful--so that's why I think at that point, someone is deaf. But I won't argue with you if you are moderate-severe or something and ID as deaf. It is your choice who you feel more connected to. I don't know what you hear or go through each day, so I don't get mad at people who call themselves HOH when I would have called myself deaf and vice versa. It's about the individual, for me.

I have gotten crap from other deafies because I speak so well though. No one has ever made any negative comment about my speech, and everyone thinks I sound hearing. So deafies get a little suspicious about it, but it's because I was more HOH when I was younger and heard speech a lot better. Some of them think I should ID as HOH, but whatever.
 
As for having to choose between "deaf" or "hard of hearing", it's not as simple as it sounds.

Cause I've seen some of the deaf, particularly the culturally deaf or "D"eaf, call those who may have some oral, auditory + lipreading skills, that wears hearing aids or a ci and took the mainstreaming route "hard of hearing", While technically speaking many of them really aren't as far as their hearing loss is concerned.
 
Bebonang said:
If you want to identify yourself as Hard of Hearing which is fine, no problem. If you don't want to be label as deaf, then it is also fine. We still don't like the word "hearing impaired" at all. So you have to pick one out of the two "deaf or hard of hearing". Both Deaf and Hard of Hearing can go and join into the Deaf communities if you can sign ASL. That is the reason why we are more comfortable with ASL to communicate with each other. We just don't want too much into the hearing communities if we don't understand what they say. So we are pretty much comfortable being in the Deaf communities. If you can handle understanding hearing people in the hearing communities with lipreading (speechreading). Then that is the way you want your life to be in the hearing communities. It is up to you. No one tell you to stop. :cool2:
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Exactly-- I still cringe when I hear someone refer to my son as IMPAIRED...

sometimes jokingly I'll say he's 'Deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other' b/c in reality, it's true... w/out his HA's one ear is profound and one is moderate-- he can hear some speech even w/out his aids (how well I don't know yet b/c he's too young to tell me "I don't understand", "you sound fuzzy", etc) but I KNOW there are environmental sounds he doesn't hear... like sirens-- even if they're right in front of him, as in a parade... so I chose to use both terms w/him... and he's on his way to being culturally Deaf as well-- as we're both slowly learning ASL.

I just know that I HATE it when someone says 'hearing impaired'
 
Natty_4ever, you have a point. For me, if I was not wearing my contacts and not up close to a person where I can lipread them, I would know they are talking, but it is all gobbly-goob. It is like a foreign language. It is only because I've had extensive speech therapy when I was young and learned to lipread that I can make any sense out of it at all and although I am dyslexic, have taught myself English through a lot of reading. I was not given the opportunity to learn sign language when I was young and I immensely regret that because I have been through a lot of heartache, ridicule and discrimination having to go through the mainstream way, a choice that was made FOR me, not BY me, yet I have survived. I know my story is not an unusual one. But it is important for me and ones like me to feel we belong somewhere. That's why I appreciate AllDeaf. I also feel there are a lot of people in my situation and similar who are very isolated because they have not had the opportunity to become a part of a Deaf community in person. I, myself, have only have a few rare opportunities to be with the Deaf community where sign language is used on a regular, everyday basis. I am self-taught.

On an individual basis, you are who you are and you define yourself; but on a social level it is an entirely different matter. I think labelling is damaging in that way. In the hearing world you are either HoH or Deaf, but in the Deaf community there is the diversity of varing degrees of deafness, however, we all have a common ground of understanding of the difficulties, obstacles and discriminations that we all face. In my opinion, it should be simply Hearing or D/deaf and no other labels in-between. The way I see it is this: If you call yourself HoH, you still identify with the Hearing "Mainstream" world; If you call yourself mildly-deaf; moderately-deaf; severely-deaf; profoundly-deaf etc you identify yourself as deaf; and with the 'big D' if you prefer to use sign language (for us late-learners) or who use sign language as your primary language. Hope that helps clarify things.
 
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I think when it comes down to it, it still depends on the individual that has an hearing loss on how they want to call themselves, whether it's deaf, hearing-impaired or hard of hearing, etc...
 
HHIssues said:
I think when it comes down to it, it still depends on the individual that has an hearing loss on how they want to call themselves, whether it's deaf, hearing-impaired or hard of hearing, etc...
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It's up to you what you want to refer to yourself as, but other people often disagree with you. Like being told you're HOH by the Deaf community because you used to be HOH, or because you can talk--even if you're totally deaf NOW (I'm not, that's just an example). I've experienced that sort of thing.
 
natty_4ever said:
It's up to you what you want to refer to yourself as, but other people often disagree with you. Like being told you're HOH by the Deaf community because you used to be HOH, or because you can talk--even if you're totally deaf NOW (I'm not, that's just an example). I've experienced that sort of thing.
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I've experienced that sort of thing too. Even though I've been deaf all my life...
 
I prefer the term...

"partially deaf" over "hard of hearing" or "hearing disabled" because partially deaf is more acurate and easy for the hearing world to understand.
 
Labels are useless. They are far too restrictive, to ourselves as well as to other people's perception of us. It matters not whether we are 50% deaf, 10% deaf or anything else. What matters is what we can do with what we have been given (or left with.)
In some areas, I excel in, in others I manage and in some areas I flop hopelessly. I can improve in some areas if I choose to, some areas are out of my control.
You can not put me in a 'box.' I refuse to stay within the confines of any box you wish to place me.
Don't assume that because I don't sign or that I can lip read very effectively, then I mustn't be very deaf. Don't assume that because I misunderstand you that I am of a lesser intelligence.
I am who I am, in spite of my deafness and sometimes because of my deafness.
One thing is that I refuse to be limited by my hearing or lack of.
 
I don't label myself based on who I socialize with or that would make me Chinese I guess given my obvious interests, and I'm clearly not. A deaf teacher described me as deaf because I can't function without my hearing aids. A teacher of audiology at a local college told me I wasn't deaf, I'm hearing impaired. Labels don't concern me, but if I'm pressed to answer someone on the subject I'd say with my hearing aids I'm hearing impaired, without them I'm deaf. What does it really matter what a person says about you anyway?

Laura
 
brubeckbach said:
"partially deaf" over "hard of hearing" or "hearing disabled" because partially deaf is more acurate and easy for the hearing world to understand.
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What is partially deaf??? That I am partially hearing???
I can not hear without any aid at all. yet I refuse to look on the negative. I can hear some with assistance! You want figures? I am completely deaf in one ear and have 10% hearing in the other. My speech recognition without lipreading or an aid is officially zero... Does this make me just partially deaf?

See what I mean that it is too hard to place anyone in a box?
 
The difference between "deaf" vs "hard of hearing" can one "hear sound or not"? Aside: When I became bilateral DEAF-I heard nothing-still don't to this day.
Real easy for me to determine-just disconnect my Cochlear Implant-real quiet!

It seems to me any adjective qualifying the degree of "deafness" is redundant-unless starts of new classification re: degrees of "no hearing". It seems to be meaningless distinction-to me, anyways.

Can silence be quantified?
 
drphil said:
The difference between "deaf" vs "hard of hearing" can one "hear sound or not"? Aside: When I became bilateral DEAF-I heard nothing-still don't to this day.
Real easy for me to determine-just disconnect my Cochlear Implant-real quiet!

It seems to me any adjective qualifying the degree of "deafness" is redundant-unless starts of new classification re: degrees of "no hearing". It seems to be meaningless distinction-to me, anyways.

Can silence be quantified?
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You are doing again as you are repeating the same comment over and over. SMH :roll:

You are trolling every time you comment. Geeze
 
Is answering questions the same as "trolling"?

Does it depends on one's "ideological perception"?

Is there such a thing as "diverse views re being DEAF"?
 
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