I am not Hard of Hearing

Everyone who has a hearing loss prefers one identification over other identifications, all of which are associated with hearing loss.  Hearing loss can occur at birth, or it can happen at a later age.  It can remain constant or can become progressively worse over time.  Depending on the type of hearing loss and the cultural, medical, and societal consequences that come with that type of hearing loss, one could call oneself hearing impaired, deaf, Deaf, hard of hearing (HOH), late-deafened, or simply a person with hearing loss.  Certain identifications can bring one closer to the hearing world or the d/Deaf world or even can allow one to have access to both worlds – it depends on the ability, willingness, and flexibility of oneself to participate in whichever world one would feel most closely or comfortably. 

Any further description as to how and/why one identifies oneself is beyond the scope of this blog.  As you may have read several of my blogs,¹ I identify myself as deaf or even as a person with hearing loss.  It’s a medical fact, and what I have is profound hearing loss across all frequencies, especially high frequencies.  For example, those with typical hearing can hear the letter ‘s’ produces a high frequency sound, but I can’t hear that damned letter, even with my hearing aids!

There was one time when I was called other than ‘deaf’, and I still disagree, sometimes vehemently, with it to this day.  It occurred at one professional meeting in the late 1990s.  Every February from 1990 to the present, I attend the Mid-Winter meeting of the Association of Research in Otolaryngology (ARO).  By 2002, we had established a group² of hearing-impaired scientists with a strong interest in Hearing Research – there were about 20 of us at that time (now there are over 80³).  Every few years, we’d invite one or more prominent professionals with hearing loss to come to ARO. 

At that particular time, we invited Donna to speak about herself – she was a newly minted Executive Director at the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf (AGBell).  She started losing her hearing in her late twenties and became profoundly deaf by the age of 40.  She has had a cochlear implant since then.⁴  Well, one day after her evening lecture, we had lunch.  There we discussed how we could further establish or strengthen our own group.  Somehow, Donna recommended that we all call ourselves hard of hearing.  Surprised and dismayed, I figuratively jumped on her.  To the effect, I asked her why she’d made such a recommendation.  Was she worried that being labeled ‘deaf’ or ‘Deaf’ would bring us down a level (or more) below our hearing peers?  Why would being labeled ‘deaf’ or ‘Deaf’ be so negative in her mind?  Why would she think being labeled as hard of hearing would bring us closer to our hearing peers than being labeled as deaf?

Of course, Donna wasn’t thrilled with my disagreement, but she couldn’t continue her suggestion after my objection.  Eventually, she had AGB renamed as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (www.agbell.org) and left her position a few years later for an executive position then with Cochlear Americas (one of the three major cochlear implant companies) and now with American Cochlear Implant Alliance.  In any event, it was (and is still) important that the renaming occurred, because more people who would identify themselves as hard of hearing (but not deaf) could join AGBell, becoming a more inclusive (or less exclusive) organization.

Advice for anyone in case he or she meets a person with hearing loss, whether or not it be planned:

1. When you meet someone with hearing loss, don’t assume he or she is deaf, HOH, or whatever.  Listen to that person indicating (if he or she ever chooses) how he or she would identify him- or herself.  That’s one sign of showing respect.  There was one time (see comment in an earlier blog⁵) when a teenager identified himself as hearing, even though he was wearing a cochlear implant.
2. Don’t assume that a person with hearing loss will have the same level of hearing loss or background as other people with hearing loss.  There are so many causes of hearing loss and so many ways of dealing with hearing loss – speech therapy, cochlear implantation and/or hearing aids, American Sign Language (ASL), cued speech, ability to use one’s own residual hearing, growing up with or without other people with hearing loss, growing up in a small town or big city, type of education (public, parochial, private, institution for the d/Deaf), etc.
3. Don’t assume that a person with hearing loss will always communicate in ASL. Look carefully at how the person would communicate. 
4. If one brings in an ASL interpreter, don’t look at the interpreter when you are talking–look at the person with hearing loss – he or she will look at the interpreter, not at you, but that doesn’t mean he or she is ignoring or disrespecting you.  He or she wants to maximize his/her communications (and get as much understanding as he/she would want to accomplish) with you.
5. Again, if the person with hearing loss brings an interpreter, it will not always mean that the person with hearing loss will communicate in ASL.  I do have an ASL interpreter during any doctor’s visit (especially when COVID-19 is still out there, calling for constant usage of face masks), and yet I will most certainly vocalize myself, not communicate in sign, when I speak with the doctor.  That’s how I’m most comfortable, shooting two or three birds with one stone – using my voice and teaching any professional that I do not necessarily sign and that one could try to listen and get used to my ‘deaf-accented’ voice.  Oftentimes, if not always, it works.

References

¹Adler, H.J. (2020) He is not Deaf – Welcome (the-eagle-ear.com).

²www.deafearscientists.org.

³Adler, H.J., Ratnanather, J.T., Steyger, P., Buran, B.N. (2019) Scientists with Hearing Loss Changing Perspectives in STEMM – Henry J. Adler – Acoustics Today

⁴The Future Of Cochlear Implants – CBS News.

⁵Adler, H.J. (2021) My mind went blank as soon as I read ‘Freudian slip’ – Welcome (the-eagle-ear.com).