Glossary of Terms

Kinds of Hearing Loss

DEAF: When spelled with a capital D, Deaf refers to people who are born deaf or became deaf prelingually (before acquiring spoken language), and use American Sign Language (ASL) for communication. These persons may also referred to as culturally Deaf and/or as members of the Deaf community.

DEAF-BLIND: Refers to people who have significant, but not necessarily total, loss of both vision and hearing (dual sensory loss). Deaf-blind people may be culturally Deaf, oral deaf, late deafened, or hard of hearing, and their mode of communication varies accordingly. The dual sensory loss may be due to illness, injury, age-related losses or genetically-caused condition.

DEAF or DEAFENED: Each term refers to the inability to understand speech through the ear; the person may still have some residual hearing.

HARD OF HEARING: Refers to people who are able to understand speech through the ear with the help of amplified sound through public address systems, hearing aids and/or other assistive listening devices. Persons may be born hard of hearing, or acquire the condition later in life.

LATE-DEAFENED: Refers to people who became deaf post-lingually (after learning to speak), and were raised in the hearing community. Most late-deafened people do not learn sign language.

ORAL DEAF: This term refers to people who are born deaf or become deaf prelingually, but are taught to speak and do not typically use American Sign Language for communication.

USHER'S SYNDROME: Refers to a congenital condition that causes progressive deafness and blindness from birth. The inner ear's nerve endings atrophy, and retinitis pigmentosa destroys the retina from the periphery to the center. Usually, the condition appears first as a hard of hearing condition in infancy, with blindness being more evident in later teen years. At its extreme, the gradual losses evolve into total deafness and blindness. The condition is inherited genetically from both parents, who are carriers even though neither parent is deaf or blind.

Types of Communication Access

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL): Refers to a visual-gesturing language that has its own rules of grammar distinct from English. It is used primarily by culturally Deaf people.

ASSISTIVE LISTENING DEVICES: Refers to hard-wired or wireless transmitting/receiving devices that transmit sound from the microphone directly to the listener, minimizing the negative effects of distance, noise, and reverberation on clarity. The devices transmit sound directly to the ear, but also can employ "teleloop" attachment accessed by the telephone switch in some hearing aids. Used by hard of hearing people.

COMPUTER ASSISTED NOTETAKING (CAN): Refers to a system in which a typist transcribes a summary of the spoken words on a computer keyboard; the words can be displayed on a laptop computer, TV monitor, or projected on a wall or film screen. CAN has the same potential audience as CART and C-Print.

COMPUTER ASSISTED REAL TIME (CART): Refers to text display of speech on a computer monitor, TV, or projected onto a film screen or wall, performed by court reporters using a stenotype machine, a computer, and real time translation software to create an almost-verbatim text rendition immediately after the words are spoken. Used by late-deafened and some oral deaf and hard of hearing people. For more information about this processs visit these commericial sites: The CPC-500 Realtime Captioning System and Real-Time (CART) Captioning Services (these are commercial web sites; links are provided for information only).

C-PRINT: Refers to a computer-aided speech-to-text transcription system developed at the National Technical Institute of the Deaf (NTID), in which a captionist, using special software and an abbreviation system, types a condensed version of the spoken words on a laptop computer and the information is simultaneously displayed on a second laptop computer or a TV. Currently used primarily in the classroom, but has the same potential audience as CART and CAN.

CUED SPEECH: Refers to a visual communication system which, in English, uses eight hand shapes in four locations in combination with the natural mouth movements of speech to identify each distinctive speech sound. Used by some oral deaf people.

ENGLISH-BASED SIGN LANGUAGE: Refers to sign language that follows English grammar and words, including finger-spelling; mostly used by some late-deafened people, while ASL is the preferred medium for culturally deaf people.

ORAL INTERPRETING: Refers to an interpreter mouthing a speaker's message, using phrases that are easy to speech-read (in earlier times referred to as "lip reading"); used by some oral deaf people and some others with good speech-reading skills.

SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETING: Refers to translating speech into American Sign Language (ASL) or English-based sign language and sign into speech. Translators need to be highly skilled in this art to be effectively understood.

SPEECH READING: Refers to interpreting lip and facial movements in order to understand speech (only partially effective); also called "lip reading." Used by oral deaf and some late deafened and hard of hearing people.

TACTILE ASL: Refers to the signing of ASL into the palms of a deaf-blind person's hands, done by a skilled interpreter.