An About.com visitor wrote:
"As a person born with a hearing loss, I have always accepted, yet struggled with my lack of ability to hear. While I do not exactly enjoy using the term "disabled" it is what it is. My lack of hearing ability does NOT make me inferior, despite the fact that many people in society try really hard to make me feel that way.
I feel that as long as the term "disability" does not carry negative connotations with it--meaning, that as long as it is NOT used to degrade, embarrass, isolate or exclude people with disabilities, then I think it can be used sometimes to inform others if/when necessary. However, since it is not a perfect world, the usage of the term is sometimes utilized to do just those things: embarrass, exclude, and etc.
It is painful and frustrating to encounter discrimination because of the stigma that any disability carries with it, so I realize that many people do not use the term "disabled."
Research Resources
The question of whether deafness is a disability has even been addressed in books focused solely on that topic, such as the following book:Mairian Corker, a deaf woman, wrote the book Deaf And Disabled, Or Deafness Disabled? (Disability, Human Rights, and Society). Open University Press, 1998.
Harlan Lane, a specialist on deaf culture, wrote an editorial in Sign Language Studies, volume two, issue four titled, "Do Deaf People Have a Disability?" Do you have any comments to add on the question of deaf, disabled, or both? Send them in for addition to this article.
