3 – Key Terms
The following Key Terms are used throughout VR4HearingLoss.net :
- Hearing Impaired (HI) – This term refers to all people with hearing loss. It is inclusive of people who are Deaf, late-deafened, and hard of hearing with no regard to severity of loss, age of onset, communication methods, use of technology, or sociocultural factors. Hearing impairment is a generic term.
- Hearing Loss (HL) – This term is frequently used in this training resource. Within the context of this training, the term refers to persons who are hard of hearing or late deafened.
- Culturally Deaf/deaf – The term “deaf” (lower case “d”) means any person with hearing loss so severe that communication and learning is primarily by visual methods. The capital “D” Deaf indicates a cultural identification with members of the Deaf community and the use of American Sign Language as the primary communication method.
- Hard of Hearing (HH) – are people who:
- Have some degree of hearing loss ranging from mild to profound as defined by audiological measurement; and
- Can benefit to some extent from the use of hearing aids or other assistive listening devices; and
- Depend primarily upon spoken or written English in communicating with others (do not rely on any form of sign language as their primary means of communication); and
- Function in the hearing world with regard to family, friends, work, and leisure activities (do not have significant association with the Deaf community); and
- May or may not have taken steps to deal with their hearing loss, i.e. audiological assessment, use of hearing aids or other technology.
- Late-Deafened (LD) – are people who:
- Have a severe to profound hearing loss as defined by audiological measurement, which occurred after the development of speech and language; and
- Can benefit from the use of visual display technology, but usually benefit very little from hearing aids or other listening technology; and
- Depend upon visual representations of English in communicating with others (May include finger spelling, some system of manually coded English, speech reading, cued speech, or written communication), but may have developed some proficiency in American Sign Language as a second language; and
- Function in the hearing world with regard to family, friends, work, and leisure activities (do not have significant association with the Deaf community); and
- Have usually taken steps to investigate the etiology and/or prognosis of their hearing loss.
- State Coordinator of Services for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing (SCD/HH) – Nationally accepted term for person in the Vocational Rehabilitation role of coordinating statewide programs and services for their hearing impaired staff and consumers.
- Rehabilitation Counselor for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing (RCD/HH) – Nationally accepted term for specialized Vocational Rehabilitation counselors skilled in serving consumers who are Deaf and hard of hearing.