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Is hearing impairment a disability?

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@PeterOo said:

We all get disability to some degree with old age.

I agree. Thanks for sharing your experience!

@snorkelfan said:

Zeeza, yes, the word impairment means the same as disability.

Thanks for your comment! Your username got my attention. Do you snorkel? I tried to learn to snorkel last summer and I did snorkel a little bit for the first time in my life.

@user699 said:

It’s not insulting, it doesn’t mean you are in some way deficient, it only means you sometimes follow a different drummer

I like how you expressed it!

@cvkemp said:

You can be disabled and if you are dedicated and determined you can do better than anyone without disabilities.

That’s very true. However, in some cases, it takes much effort and time to make it.

@GarethJW, you summed it up very nicely!

@RobHooft said:

we might look at how disadvantaged countries were/are called over the years.

As a person from those disadvantaged countries, I’m trying to educate myself on decolonizing language. That was a LinkedIn post I came across a couple of days ago.

Thank you all for enriching this discussion with your personal inputs!

#decolonizinglanguage #epistemicide #linguicide #cognitiveimperialism...4

Decolonizing Anti-Racism Language in Honour of Black History Month 2026. By Shayla S. Dube, MSW, RSW #DecolonizingLanguage is part of confronting #epistemicide and #linguicide, the colonial erasure of pre-colonial knowledge systems and...

Really a good read, thanks everyone. I really like the term “Invisible Disability” Most people with normal hearing do not understand this “Invisible Disability”. I got disqualified at work because I could not hear a sound. I was protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Did not know it existed but my Union came to the rescue. Again thanks, very good information on the forum.

Actually- at least in some countries, companies are obliged to employ a certain percentage of legally disabled people. In this cohort at least, “just” being hearing impaired is definitely an advantage as far as job security is concerned…

Edited

In reply to @Zeeza

@Zeeza anything in life worth doing takes more effort than just getting by. I came from a farm community. And as a farm boy I had to always do more than the rest just to be taken seriously.

In reply to @Zeeza

Thanks, Zeeza!! Yes,snorkeling is a lot of fun. I don’t do it that often, but it can be an amazing experience. There’s a whole other world in the coral reefs. I’ve done it in the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, and also Cape Cod, and lakes in Massachusetts. I hope to do it more.. did you enjoy it?

In reply to @RAISSA

I do not need a law to tell me if I have a disability - I can do it myself! Yes, laws do exist for the purpose of definition, and to help people with disability when they need it. In particular, many countries have enacted laws to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. And this is a good thing. But not all people with a disability accept that they have a disability. This is where the individual’s own wishes come into play. For example, there are communities the members of which are deaf from birth. They rely on sign language to communicate and do not accept that they have a disability. In fact, the culture of their group is a deaf culture, and they might regard the ‘hearing’ world has having a real disability. A difficulty arises when there is a clash between the two groups over what should happen in the case of children whose hearing deficits could be improved by surgery. To be brief, the question is whether the children should have surgical intervention and thus join the hearing world, or should they not have the intervention and thus remain within the cultural group of their parents and peers. This, I think, is a philosophical question, and one which only the individuals concerned can resolve.

I have hearing loss due to exposure to loud noise at work

I Have applied for and receive workman’s compensation

It’s a disability. Ontario Canada

DaveL

I like to describe myself as hearing challenged. Is it a disability? Yes, but life must and will go on, until it doesn’t. I’ve had a good laugh reading some of the entertaining posts in this thread.

I tend to think of a disability as something which stops me accessing the world around me in the ways that others access it. It’s very hard to pin that statement down so I apologise, but it makes sense in my head. I have no eyesight I am totally blind. I think we’d all agree the world is not set up for blind people, for many reasons. My blindness is definitely a disability. I also have hearing loss. Again, the world is not set up for that, though it is more set up for it than blindness. So yes, I class it as a disability. To have both blindness and hearing loss really, really really sucks because the world is just not ready to deal with that. So short answer, yes, I do :slight_smile:

If one uses physical perfection as the yardstick to designate a person as “disabled”; just note that 80–90% of teenagers in Seoul require glasses…

I am 78 years old and have been wearing glasses for 70 years of my life, and hearing aids for 20 years of my life. Has that fact slowed me down? NO.

Yes, hearing (and vision) impairment is a disability. The fact that cvkemp hasn’t been slowed down shows that his disabilities have successfully been handled by corrective measures, but without those accommodations, those disabilities would have certainly slowed him down. I am 84 and would have certainly been slowed down if I hadn’t been able to correct my visual disability with glasses or my hearing disability without hearing aids.

But I have known many that just said wow is me and just laid down any gave up. Life throws everyone curves and roadblocks but that shouldn’t stop you or even slow you down if you have the will, the attitude and determination to make it happen. I think for me it was if I didn’t make it happen no one would.

Not specifically commenting on disability that might be considered possible to be ameliorated.

It’s a fine line between make lemons of lemonade and language that underpins ableism which many disabled people struggle with from others and themselves. You have commented that it took years to get your aids and hearing to where it currently is and that you were more isolated for some of that time due at least in part to your hearing.

True but I never stopped working or being with my family. I worked as an IT professional doing phone support calls as well as face to face and even remote service. It was very stressful and tiring. My point is that I never laid down and gave up. I also pushed my audiologist every chance I had the chance to. My point is don’t give up. Never say I can’t or that I give up. Sure I felt isolated but that drove me harder to fit answers and fix my issues.

In the Netherlands we had ‘gehandicapten’, nowadays we talk about ‘ mensen met een beperking’ you could translate that with ‘people with a limitation’.

In stead of defining others as their lack (the cripple the deaf), you define someone with everything they cán

The point is we all have limitations, but some limitations are not accepted as normal. There comes the fight for acceptance and equal rights.

My point is: don’t hide your hearing impairment, be frank about your limitations

Interesting read of all contributors. I’ve completed many forms (including government related ones), where at some point you are asked if you have any disability or impairments on a list and hearing loss has always been there which I find satisfying.

If appropriate, in public places and in company, I mention my hearing loss as it avoids misunderstandings and people are usually very good about it. I find that sometimes there can be a feeling that people think you are just thick unless you explain your invisible disability.

In reply to @flyjazz

@flyjazz said:

I’ve had a good laugh reading some of the entertaining posts in this thread.

Most excellent, flyjazz.

One of the wisest people I’ve ever known used to say, “If you can laugh, you can survive” and I think it is true.

Yeah, I can’t hear much, and am grateful for what vision I have left, but my sense of humor - the ability to find humor and irony in the direst spots - goes a long way towards ameliorating my ‘disabilities’. Being happy is the most wonderful ability of all.

In the UK it may be considered a disability if the hearing loss is substancial, long term and affects communication. An interesting point you would normally qualify for a “Disabled Persons Rail Card” if you are registered as deaf or use a hearing aid. The evidence to qualify include; a copy of the front page of your NHS battery book or a copy of your dispensing prescription from a private hearing aid supplier. The Disabled Persons Rail Card qualifies you for 1/3rd discount on national rail travel AND with your Disabled Persons Railcard you can also get 1/3rd off rail fares for one person travelling with you.

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