Deaf Individual

A deaf individual, or deaf person, may mean:

  • a pre-lingually deaf person, someone who is deaf at birth or became deaf in infancy before acquiring mastery of a spoken language, will often have sign language as a first language, and may be part of the Deaf community. He or she may have learned some degree of speech communication, such as lip reading -- see Deaf education.
  • a post-lingually deaf person
  • a late deafened adult, may be hard of hearing and/or have a progressive hearing loss.

Deaf, a Deaf individual, or a Deaf person, (capitalized) may mean:

  • a person who identifies with Deaf culture.

Famous quotes containing the words deaf and/or individual:

    “O never give the heart outright,
    For they, for all smooth lips can say,
    Have given their hearts up to the play.
    And who could play it well enough
    If deaf and dumb and blind with love?”
    —William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    “When a village ceases to be a community, it becomes oppressive in its narrow conformity. So one becomes an individual and migrates to the city. There, finding others likeminded, one re- establishes a village community. Nowadays only New Yorkers are yokels.”
    —Paul Goodman (1911–1972)