IS HEARING IMPAIRED AN ACCEPTABLE TERM?

By Cheeta Olujie

That’s one of the hot questions today, and it will be good that we keep discussing the question because it helps us to spread the facts across the world.

Though the word “Hearing Impaired” was used mostly in the past but not anymore, its old fashion words and it’s not acceptable again by most Deaf communities, and it’s normal because as the years go by, we change and adapt to something new, something different and something that sounds good. Just as in the past, they use the word “Idiot” to describe a person who has a lack of skills necessary for day to day living and later on it changed to “mentally retarded,” and today it’s newly called “intellectual disabled.”

Let’s go a little deeper on the word “hearing impaired,” it’s used to describe people with hearing loss, from mild to profound and it referred to both the Deaf and hard of hearing. The audiologists mostly use the word Hearing impaired or hearing impairment, but today Most Deaf prefer to call themselves Deaf while hard of hearing prefer to call themselves Hard of hearing because it’s more specific and it’s also more positive than the word hearing impaired. 

We have some offensive terms like this: “hearing disabled,” “persons with hearing loss,” “deaf-mute,” “deaf and dumb,” or “hearing-impaired,” and many more. It will be helpful to respect the Deaf community by not using those outdated and offensive terms because that’s not what they want to call with. 

Again it’s a personal choice thing, if a Deaf person happens to request or accept those offensive terms, don’t argue with them, we respect their choice just as we want to be regarded with our selection.

OUT OF CURIOSITY: In 30 years, I am sure the term might be outdated and offensive just as it is to the “hearing impaired” now, and a new word will pop up for the Deaf communities, which word do you think will be used?