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Before you assume that this article belongs under Health or Special Education, hear me out (no pun intended).

In our politically correct world, I am being disrespectful when I use the term "Deaf" rather than "hearing impaired," right?

Wrong. Yes, there are many people who prefer the term "hearing impaired." They have difficulty hearing and may not be able to hear at all, but they would like to fit into the hearing world as much as possible.

But there is another group of people out there who far too few people know about. They are proud to be Deaf, insist upon being called Deaf, and even adhere to their own Deaf culture.

In a society where we try to understand and even respect other cultures, should we not become aware of this culture and grow an appreciation for the people who proudly make up the culture?

In America, people in the Deaf culture use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate. It is a visual language, consisting of very different grammar rules and word order than English. In an ASL class I took several years ago, the instructor told a story of when he went with some Deaf friends to a local restaurant. Being the only Hearing person of the group, the instructor had no reason to speak aloud, so he communicated silently in ASL with the group. After a few moments, he began to overhear a conversation from a Hearing couple behind him.

"Oh, those poor people," he heard. "Look, they can't hear. Their lives must be so hard. I bet most of them can't get a job anywhere. I wonder if any of them have children. I don't think that would be very fair for the child, do you? I think you should really be able to hear to have children. I just feel so sorry for them. It must be terrible."

After enduring several more minutes of comments, my instructor finally had enough.

"You know," he said, turning around to face them. "It's really not all that bad." He turned back around to his friends and, from the corner of his eye, watched the couple get up and leave the restaurant.

People find it very difficult to see anyone in the Deaf culture as anything other than pitiable, someone who has a terrible impairment that keeps them locked away from the real world. I think it is absolutely vital for anyone who has any interaction with Deaf people to understand the Deaf culture and the pride that people who are Deaf share with one another.

I was once told by a friend who was Deaf that to be called "Hearing" by someone is a huge insult in his culture. "You are not hearing people. You are Deaf

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