When does hearing loss become classified as deaf or hearing impaired? Is it when it hits a certain percentage of hearing loss?
What if you can hear, but only very little and hearing aids don't help?
Incoming search terms:
- difference between deafness and hearing impaired
1 comment… read it below or add one
Really the words "hearing impaired" is just another way of saying deafness, but it can also include those who have mild to moderate hearing loss. Let's say that you want have an educational program for students whom have hearing loss. To call it a "deaf program" would be too limited, so they would typically use the terms "hearing impaired" instead to cover all ranges of hearing loss.
I went to a mainstream hearing impaired program at a public school during elementary school. There are state schools for the deaf where sign language is the main mode of communication. They use the word "deaf" because that is more of what they specialize in.
Look here on this chart http://www.stronghealth.com/services/Audiology/hearing/degreehearingloss.cfm
Degrees of hearing loss is classifed as: mild, moderate, moderate to severe, severe, and profound based on how much they can hear. Those whom have mild to moderate hearing loss are considered "hard-of-hearing" and those that have severe to profound hearing loss are "deaf."
Hard of hearing people can understand what they hear with hearing aids, such has talking on the phone, recognize most sounds without problems. Those who are deaf, even when they wear hearing aids, they can't talk on the phone or recognize all sounds, just some of it.
I'm profoundly deaf and wear hearing aids. I can't talk on the phone, but I can hear about 50% of sounds with my hearing aids. Without my hearing aids, I hear nothing.