Late Deafened People

Many people lose their hearing after they have already developed language skills. This can happen anywhere from later childhood to the senior citizen years. Late-deafened people face unique challenges as they adjust to new lives as people with hearing loss. For example, should they learn sign language? How do they cope emotionally?

Organizations for Late-Deafened People

The Association of Late Deafened Adults is an organization providing support to late-deafened adults.

People Who Became Deafened

JB Brown lost his hearing and it had major effects on both his career and personal life. Pat Carter is someone else who experienced the journey from being hearing to being deaf.

Choosing Sign Language, Speech, or Both

Late deafened people have the unique opportunity to make a choice that a young deaf child can not. They can choose whether to learn sign language, or stick with only speech. On the Readers Respond page on Communication Skills Choices, late deafened About.com readers can share their choices and the reasons for those choices.

Suddenly Deafened

Sometimes the hearing is lost suddenly. As one can imagine, that is not a pleasant experience. On the Readers Respond page on Coping with Sudden Hearing Loss, suddenly deafened About.com readers describe their experience and how they coped with the sudden loss of their hearing.