When it comes to the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing community, it can be challenging to understand the differences in ability and culture. We review each in article one of our D/deaf/hard-of-hearing series.
The Deaf community are typically profoundly deaf individuals who are also part of a cultural group. When using Deaf with the capital ‘D,’ you’re referring to this cultural group, and you may cause a lot of offense if you mis-culture somebody. Identifying as Deaf usually depends on someone’s upbringing, as well as their cultural and political beliefs.
For example, the Deaf generally rely on American Sign Language as their primary means of communication. Still, they view this as their language and not as anything to do with a disability. Indeed, the Deaf community doesn’t consider being deaf as a disability − they are differently-abled and are part of a cultural and political group with their own language. Many Deaf people refuse hearing aids or cochlear implants, as they don’t want their hearing differences ‘fixed’. Cochlear implants are controversial amongst Deaf families and most people who identify as Deaf are born Deaf.
Persons who identify as ‘deaf’ without the capital ‘D’ are usually profoundly deaf, but they don’t identify with the Deaf community. However, topics like cochlear implants may still be controversial. Many people with a disability don’t like references to being disabled and prefer to think of themselves as differently-abled instead.
However, someone who identifies as ‘deaf’ will usually have no issues with hearing aids or cochlear implants, and these are standard devices amongst deaf people. Someone identifying as deaf may have become deaf during their lifetime or been born deaf.
The hard-of-hearing community are people who have some degree of hearing loss, from mild to severe. Many of us wear hearing aids, but lots of us don’t. Being hard-of-hearing usually involves lipreading, captions, or textphones, but ASL is not as common.
Someone identifying as hard-of-hearing usually has some degree of hearing left and can hear some sounds. However, any degree of hearing loss comes with difficulties, such as following a conversation or hearing alarms. Background noise is often an issue for employees living with hearing loss.
The best way to approach an employee with any type of hearing loss is to discuss their ability with them in private. It’s essential to understand whether your employees identify as Deaf or not and ensure you don’t forget this. Deaf employees prefer to be seen as members of a cultural group with their own language and not as someone with a disability.
D/deaf employees may require ASL interpreters, textphones, or lip speakers. They may use cochlear implants or hearing aids but still may not be able to hear the conversation. Hard-of-hearing employees may require similar adaptations but are more likely to need adaptations that help them understand conversation or audio content rather than alternatives.
To conclude, Deaf employees are profoundly deaf and identify as part of a cultural group, whereas deaf employees are profoundly deaf but do not identify as Deaf. Hard-of-hearing employees have some degree of hearing and do not typically identify as part of a cultural group.