hearing difficulties

Dear English teachers or native speakers


Could you please help me with the following problem:

I need to find a correct term for a group of handicapped people. I know the term - hard of hearing - that means that the person can hear a little bit, then I know the term deaf - that means that the person cannot hear at all...What I need is a general term - sth like people with hearing difficulties. Is there a general term which covers all various hearing difficulties????

Thank you very much for your due time and attention. KP

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Originally Posted by katerina.pata

Dear English teachers or native speakers


Could you please help me with the following problem:

I need to find a correct term for a group of handicapped people. I know the term - hard of hearing - that means that the person can hear a little bit, then I know the term deaf - that means that the person cannot hear at all...What I need is a general term - sth like people with hearing difficulties. Is there a general term which covers all various hearing difficulties????

Thank you very much for your due time and attention. KP

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Semi-teacher and native.

I'm not sure there is one, I was going to suggest 'hearing imparied', however, I googled it and found this on wikipedia.
'When applied to humans, the term hearing impaired is rejected by the deaf culture movement, where the terms deaf and hard-of-hearing are preferred.'

'The term hearing impaired is more likely to be used by people with a less than severe hearing loss and people who have acquired deafness in adulthood than by those who have grown up deaf. By contrast, those who identify with the Deaf culture movement typically reject the label impaired and other labels that imply that deafness is a pathological condition, viewing it instead as a locus of pride.'

I'm afraid I can't help you any more than that, sorry.

This is the term used by one major charity in the UK:

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Changing the world for people who are deaf or have a hearing loss. Action on Hearing Loss is the new name of RNID, the largest charity representing the 10 million people who are deaf or have a hearing loss in the UK.

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Home - Action On Hearing Loss: RNID

There are other sites here:

Deafness and Hearing Impediment - ESL Web Directory - UsingEnglish.com