“Deaf”, not “Hearing Impaired”

Most hearing people refer to the Deaf as hearing impaired. But people in the deaf community prefer “Deaf” or “Hard of Hearing”.

There are deaf people who are not involved in the deaf community who might refer to themselves as “hearing impaired”.

I often refrain from pointing this out because I don’t think anyone’s going to take me seriously. When I went to hearing schools, we were always called “hearing impaired”, even in the special class for the deaf kids and that’s how I used to refer to myself.

When I went to Michigan School for the Deaf, one of the first things I learned is how much deaf people dislike the term “hearing impaired”.