Richard Herring
Copyright 2002
[Editor's NOTE: This paper was written while the author was Director of the New Jersey Division of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the Department of Human Services.]
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We are all aware there are differing degrees of hearing loss; hence the terms Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Late Deafened.
All too often, most people are inclined to think of the term Deaf as encompassing all degrees of hearing loss and they believe sign language interpreting is "the" communication modality for those who are Hard of Hearing and Late Deafened. One should not be predisposed to believe there is only one form of communication access, i.e., sign language interpreting for all degrees of hearing loss.
We need to be a little more sensitive to people who have differing degrees of hearing loss and thus require different communication modalities. Typically, we see people who are Deaf requesting sign language interpreters, people who are hard of hearing requesting assistive listening devices (ALDs) and people who are late deafened requesting captioning (CART). There are instances when requests for these communication modalities overlap; however the main message here is that just because a person cannot hear well one should not automatically assume he/she is deaf and the only communication modality is sign language interpreting.
In proposing and requesting communication access services, the public should never think that all bases are covered with the word Deaf. The words Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Late-Deafened should be used in the plural sense whenever appropriate; more advocacy among our constituencies is needed to educate the public about different communication needs personally and under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
We all reside in a world of diverse communication and culture. Through strategies that foster unity, only then can we effectively make hearing loss better understood.
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