Preface

To hear and see well is to be desired.      Might it be even more desirable      to see with the mind and hear with the heart?      Robert L. Walker, Committee Chairperson (1999-2000)

In the United States an estimated 28 million children, women and men live with hearing loss (10% of the population). Of that number approximately a half million are "culturally Deaf" people who rely on American Sign Language (ASL) or English Signing for communication. One and a half million (.53%) are "late-deafened" people, while the largest number is that of "hard of hearing" people (26 million or 8% of the population).

Nearly all in the latter two groups function in the hearing rather than the Deaf culture. That means their primary means of communication is not by signing, but by use of speech, speech-reading, visual aids, hearing aids and/or assistive listening systems. These people are to be found in your church. To visualize their presence, we suggest that you do a little arithmetic. Multiply 8% (.08) into the number of your church members. That will represent the approximate number of hard of hearing people in your congregation. About one half of one percent (.0053) multiplied into the church membership count gives you an estimated number of late-deafened people in your church. Statistically you might have a culturally deaf member, but realistically, most Deaf people are not in your church, unless you currently provide an ASL interpreter for all church events.

As an example, in a church of five hundred members, forty members might be hard of hearing while two or three may be late-deafened. The numbers will increase as your congregation ages. One in four persons over the age of 65 will experience increasing difficulty in hearing well. Noise-pollution and other environmental factors are increasingly damaging people's ability to hear.

It is sobering to learn that other studies indicate some 90% of church members unable to hear well have or are likely to drop out of church participation. And what about those who have never joined the church due to it not being hearing accessible? They, too, need to hear the good news of God's gracious love, and find wholeness, nurture and opportunities for ministry within a hospitable body of Christ.

It is the conviction of the United Methodist Congress of the Deaf and its Standing Committee on Church Accessibility Promotion: Hard of Hearing and Late-deafened People, that God is calling The United Methodist Church to engage in ministry and mission with hard of hearing and late-deafened people. This booklet is provided to encourage and enable obedience to God's call in every agency, general board, conference, district and local body of The United Methodist Church.