Being deaf and Deaf

Too Long, Don’t Read & Introduction

All culturally Deaf people have some amount of audiological hearing loss/hearing impairment/deafness, but only deaf people who sign are Deaf with the majuscule D.

Maybe you have stumbled upon me describing myself as a deaf person, but have heard a recording of me speak, or have spoken with me directly. Maybe you are a grammarian have seen me say that I am Deaf, and think: but “deaf” isn’t a proper noun? In the Deaf community, “deaf” with the lowercase-d refers to hearing loss, i.e., deafness as an audiological condition; the word “Deaf” with the capital-D refers to being a member of a linguistic/cultural minority: a minority of persons with hearing loss and use a signed language to communicate. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has a FAQ page briefly explaining some of different between deaf, Deaf, outdated terms such as “deaf-and-dumb”, and clinical terms such as “hearing-impaired”. The earliest audiogram that I found from Cincinnati Children’s is uploaded here, and as of September 8, 2025, I still have a bilateral sloping mild to severe sensoineural hearing impairment.

General Information

No one seems to want to read books. So, here are three YouTube resources: two by the Minnesota state government and one by Barb DiGi AKA avbria.

Book Recommendations

In no particular order, these are good information about d/Deafness from a general sense. Padden’s is the shortest.

  1. Carol Padden and Tom Humphries, Deaf in America. (The sign song by Charles Krauel on p. 77, “I Hear Nothing“, is on DawnSignPress’ YouTube).
  2. Jack Gannon, Deaf History.
  3. Harlan Lane, The Mask of Benevolence (an excerpt of Chapter 2, translated into signs, can be found here).
  4. Paddy Ladd, Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. 2022. Web. Accessed 19 September 2025.

Film Recommendations

Sign Language Resources

Language is best learnt through interaction with the native using community. For signs, this is residential schools for the deaf, places such as Gallaudet University–although I can personally say that Gallaudet “University” does not prioritize equity for students with additional disabilities; please contact me directly if you really want to know my experiences–and the National Technical Institute of the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I’ve only used the first two directly; I’m familiar with many contributors in True Way, particularly Nathie Marbury.

Fingerspelling and Numbering Resources

Fingerspelling is the manual representation of the majority language’s alphabet and numerals using the digit(s) of the hand(s). [Read more]

Are You Interested in Sign Language Interpreting as A Career Choice?

Sign-language interpreting is a wonderful profession. There are two kinds of sign interpreters generally: hearing and Deaf. A Deaf interpreter can work solo or works as a team, either with another Deaf interpreter or with a hearing interpreter, to provide access to signers who either have minimal language skills, do not know the majority/country signed language, have additional disabilities (blindness, low vision, strokes, musculoskeletal pnroblems, etc) that make solo-interpreting by just a hearing interpreter difficult or impossible. Deaf interpreters can also work individually as a support service provider (SSPs) for deaf-blind individuals. The below are public, active Web resources pertaining to The United States of America.

Black American Sign Language: A Distinct Dialect

Due to the racism within the Deaf community, African Americans have their own distinct dialect of signs. The most prominent example is the sign for PREGNANT: the white sign is at the womb; the Black sign is at the throat. More resources about Black American Sign Language are as follows.

  • Hill, Joseph. “Black ASL“. ASLized. 22 Mar 2012. Web. Accessed 1 Oct 2025. This provides a general overview of the biggest differences.

What is Deaf Gain?

Deaf Gain is a social construct in opposition to the clinical concept of hearing loss, i.e., in embracing that one is Deaf, one gains tangible benefits. There is myriad research on the benefits of bimodal bilingualism for Deaf babies. Learning signs first does not hinder the acquisition of spoken language, and there is copious research that suggests that strong fingerspellers are strong readers. On social media such as Twitter and Facebook, you may see the hashtag #DeafGain. Of course, the etiologies of deafness are many (see video referenced above) and, the literature suggests that early implantation of children followed by aggressive, sometimes sadistic speech-language pathology in an oral/spoken language that language acquisition is possible. Several conditions that cause deafness such as Ménière’s disease (which both actresses Switched at Birth‘s Katie Leclerc and Tony Award-winner Wicked‘s Kristen Chenoweth have), also cause debilitating vertigo due to the effects on the inner-ear system that can be successfully managed with cochlear implantation. I know many native Deaf signers who can speak. I myself can speak fairly well. I am a proud alumnus of The Ohio School for the Deaf and an indifferent alumnus of Gallaudet University, and I support the right of Deaf babies to grow up bilingual, as Barb DiGi expands on an ASL translation of an original essay by François Grosjean [this is in English].

Last Updated:  16. Oct 2025