There have been a lot of talks in the Deaf community about who is actually “deaf” and who is “hard of hearing”. While there are debates and misconceptions, several members of the disability community find either term obnoxious.
This has been an inconclusive issue and has continued till this very moment, particularly in the Deaf community.
While some in the community prefer to be seen as and called “hard of hearing”, many deaf people have liked to be addressed as Deaf.
And as a matter of fact, some medically hard-of-hearing people consider themselves culturally Deaf- to them, no such idea as partial or mild or average deafness. It is Deafness. They are Deaf. They would strongly ask that “Deaf” be used as a title. So we have “Deaf Teacher David Yaya, “Deaf Comrade Kola Martins, “Mama Deaf”, Papa Deaf and so forth.
Deafness is wholly embraced.
For some others, they have a different idea and understanding. That is fine.
We want closure. We want a consensus. We want to see and understand true facts about these confusing issues. But in short, we want to establish a singular definition of what it means to be deaf or hard of hearing, or of that which tells us whether someone is deaf or hard of hearing.
We will dip into the textbooks. We will troll the medical community. And we will look into individual psychology, culture and technology, and modernism. Finally, we will look into ourselves.
At the end, everyone will be free to determine what/who actually constitutes Deaf, deaf, and hard of hearing. And everyone will know where they stand- in all honesty.
Now, let us establish the ideas from varied sources about Deafness and Hard of Hearing.
What the Literature (The Textbooks) says
Researchers use “Deaf and hard-of-hearing” (DHH) to describe a hearing loss (aided or unaided) that affects an individual’s linguistic information-processing capacity and adversely impacts their academic achievements, interpersonal relationship relations, and difficulty engaging with the larger non-disabled community.
While deafness may be a total inability to perceive speech sounds, hard of hearing, according to studies, is a term used to describe persons with residual (remaining) hearing who may require a hearing aid as a primary modality for acquiring language and communication with others. Hard-of-hearing students can process linguistic information through hearing, whether with a hearing device or not.
Scholars define deafness as when someone cannot or is unable to hear at all or well. Deafness is also known as hearing loss. A person is considered to be deaf if they cannot hear the same range of sounds (High- Low speech/sounds) as a person with normal hearing ability.
CONCERNS
It is not clear what is meant by sounds or words. Do we also classify as deaf or hard of hearing as people who cannot hear speech (meaningful human sounds) at all but can perceive horns, loud alarms, gunshots, bangs of slams of large objects when they are situated at strategic places at a particular time?
CONCLUSION
The textbooks fail to eliminate the blurry line between who is deaf and hard of hearing.
What the Medical Community (The Doctors) say
Doctors, such as audiologists, clinical psychologists, and other relevant helping professionals are very different than academics and university professors.
Unlike the schools, doctors practice what they admit and assert. They see it. They do it.
Medically, deafness (hearing loss) is defined by the results of a hearing test. In other words, deafness is only determined after an evaluation or tests are carried out on an individual by audiologists.
Rather than a guessing game or formulated thing as done in the university, there are considerations or standards set out to classify someone as either deaf or hard of hearing.
A complete hearing test examines how loud sounds across the frequency range have to be in order for it to be detected. It also gauges how well speech is understood.
Now, if one is unable to detect sounds quieter than 90dB HL (decibels Hearing Level), it is considered a profound hearing loss for those frequencies. If the average of the frequencies at 500Hz, 1000Hz, and 2000Hz is 90dB or higher, the person is considered deaf.
What is meant in essence is that how well or how much you can hear as an individual (level)- found out by standard tests, tells whether the person is deaf or hard of hearing.
CONCERNS
Given a society that has failed to provide affordable and effective access to hearing tests and assessment, Nigerians with all levels of hearing loss have found it very difficult to seek the services of these medical professionals.
CONCLUSION
For that reason, it is impossible for us to determine whether we are deaf or hard of hearing from a medical point of view.
What the Culture (Attitudes and Beliefs) say
Culture has always been a big influence on everything. People’s beliefs have changed how they see mental illness or deafness, for example. On one hand, one individual may be seen by a certain community or nation as mentally ill due to certain behaviours. Whereas, in another remote community or nation, such a person may be seen as a very normal person with just a temporary “heavenly” condition. Culture plays funny.
The cultural definition is much different than the medical definition. According to the cultural definition, being deaf or hard of hearing has nothing to do with how much you can hear.
Instead, it has to do with how you identify yourself. Do you relate more closely to hearing people or deaf people? Do you embrace the idea of using amplification devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants to hear? Or Would you rather prefer to use American Sign Language instead of learning to speak or to manage the use of pieces of equipment on your ears?
CONCERNS
The disruptive influence of culture is a particular problem in our attempt to classify deaf and hard of hearing people objectively.
CONCLUSION
There aren’t just no easy answers because those cultural questions are very personal stuff.
What Ourselves (our personal choices and Mindset) say
I call this a psychological definition of deaf and hard of hearing. We are all very different persons in a whole lot of ways. This uniqueness of each one of us has made it possible for there to be different levels of attitudes and mindsets. We have different intensities of self-confidence and self-esteem.
It has been that the higher the level of an individual’s self-awareness, the longer and harder it takes for them to accept a disability such as deafness or what have you.
CONCERNS
Different persons with different mindsets. There are people who are in continual denial about the degree of their deafness. Hearing statements like, “I am not deaf. I am only fairly hard of hearing” are statements by such individuals
CONCLUSION
Given the different concepts and knowledge that we have of ourselves, including individual pride and acceptance of disability, concluding that somebody is deaf, Deaf or hard of hearing becomes quite not an easy thing to determine.
GRAND CONCLUSION
It is impossible to arrive at a singular definition of what it means to be deaf or hard of hearing or that which tells us whether someone is deaf or hard of hearing. We have looked into various definitions of deaf or hard of hearing, including academic definition, medical definition, cultural definition, psychological definition, and dual definition (assistive tech devices).
While the medical definition may pertain to everyone, the way an individual looks at their hearing loss and how they fit (or don’t) into the deaf culture are just as important to consider.
In reality, there is no right or wrong answer that fits every individual. It is often best to ask what someone prefers before making assumptions that potentially offend them.