Understanding The Conditions & Needs Of Hard Of Hearing & Late-Deafened People

by Holly Elliott

The United Methodist Congress of the Deaf, at conferences and other meetings, struggles to become one in the body of Christ and at the same time recognize the heterogeneity and diverse needs of persons who are included among those who have partial loss or nearly complete absence of hearing. According to a survey made by the National Association of the Deaf, approximately eight of 1,000 people in the United States are deaf.¹ Of those eight, one was born deaf, one became deaf before age 18, and six became deaf in adulthood.

A large majority of the born-deaf group become active members of the Deaf Culture, communicating freely with each other in American Sign Language (ASL), a language that is as different from English as is Russian or Spanish. This is a culture-proud community. Culturally Deaf people do not consider themselves handicapped or "hearing-impaired" or "disabled" but a unique and valid ethnic community, and they may use a capital "D" in "Deaf" to indicate this. The born-deaf population also includes the oral deaf, those who depend on speech and speech-reading for communication and use oral rather than sign language interpreters.

Of the group that lost hearing before the age of 18, typically those who became deaf prelingually (roughly by the age of 4, before acquiring spoken language) usually identify with the Deaf community. People who lost hearing post-lingually, but before the age of 18, may identify either with the Deaf or hearing community; those raised in the hearing community usually function as late-deafened adults. People who lose hearing as adults usually identify with the hearing community and are considered late-deafened. If they learn sign language, they prefer Signed English, which follows the rules of English grammar and allows them to talk and sign at the same time. Those with some residual hearing find hearing aids useful, but they depend largely on vision for information. Because language was developed before becoming deaf, speech-reading comes more easily than for culturally Deaf people but may still be difficult.

An increasing number of late-deafened people are getting a cochlear implant, which provides an electronic sound and speech that is more understandable to those who mastered language before they became deaf. This group primarily identifies with the hearing community and is known as "culturally hearing" deaf people.

The largest number of people with hearing impairment, probably around 500,000 in the United Methodist Church, are "hard of hearing." One can be born with this condition, or acquire it later in life. As the environment becomes noisier and the population grows older, this number is increasing. People who are hard of hearing have useful residual hearing and can benefit from hearing aids and assistive listening devices.²

Those who were born hard of hearing often have more difficulty understanding sound and speaking a language, because they have never heard speech in its normal and myriad tones. Consequently, their needs may differ from those of others living with hearing loss. Lip reading (or speech-reading) is easier to understand for those who have experienced normal hearing before becoming hearing impaired than it is for those born hard of hearing. A similar statement can be made about members of the deaf-blind group. Persons born deaf and blind (or became so prelingually) often become proficient in tactile communication and Braille.

Those who become deaf and blind later in life are a varied group, depending on the age of each condition's onset. A further complication arises from the progression and degree of loss. In Usher's Syndrome, for example, one can be hard of hearing from birth with progressive loss of hearing acuity throughout life, and not experience progressive blindness until later in the teen or young adult years. Ultimately, with Usher's Syndrome, one can become completely deaf and blind.³

Technology in the form of reading machines,⁴ large print and "document reading" software for computers can be helpful, depending on the degree of loss. Similarly, hearing aids and assistive listening devices are helpful for deaf-blind people who have residual hearing capability.

So the question is: Can the Word of God be made accessible to all of the above? The answer to that is: Yes! But the Church must work actively to ensure that, in fact, access becomes a reality for all who live with little or no hearing.

This article was written by Holly Elliott, a member of United Methodist Congress of the Deaf's Standing Committee on Church Promotion: Hard of Hearing People and Late-Deafened. Ms. Elliott lives with the late-deafened condition, and is now coping with macular degeneration of the eyes. She is a past president of UMCD.

Notes

¹ Schein and Delk, 1974
² An assistive listening device (ALD) is an electronic hearing aid that is rented or lent for use in a public area such as a theater or church. A hearing aid is one's personal tool to amplify sounds wherever the user may be. See the Glossary and other articles in this booklet for more information about assistive listening devices.
³ Usher's Syndrome describes progressive nerve damage in the inner ear and a progressive loss of vision caused by Retinitis Pigmentosa. The latter disease destroys the retina from its periphery to the center (opposite to Macular Degeneration which attacks the retina from the center to the periphery. Usher's Syndrome is caused congenitally by genes carried by both parents.
⁴ There are two kinds of reading machines. The most common is a closed circuit TV system, utilizing a tiny TV camera housed beneath a viewing monitor; it films printed matter which appears on the screen in either color, white on black or black on white format. Another, developing machine "reads" the printed matter in synthetic voice.