Definitions
Glossary of terms related to Deaf Identity
American Sign Language or ASL
A visual- gestural language having its own rules of grammar and is mostly used by deaf people in the United States and Canada.
ASL Community
This term consists of signing individuals of all ages, regardless of their hearing status, who share one common characteristic of deaf culture.
Deaf
Partially or completely lacking in the sense of hearing.
Deaf-Blind
Partially or completely lacking in the sense of either or both hearing and seeing.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
This term is often used by government agencies and advocacy groups to imply their commitment to serving both groups of deaf and hard of hearing consumers and/or members.
Deaf Community
This term consists of individuals with varying communication modes and backgrounds, both deaf and hearing, who share common characteristics of hearing losses and/or deaf culture.
Here, for our purposes, the term - Deaf Community - consists of individuals with varying communication modes and backgrounds, both deaf and hearing, who share common characteristics of hearing losses and/or deaf culture.
Deaf Culture
The shared arts, customs, folklore, history, traditions, and values that are connected to some members of the deaf community.
For our purposes, the deaf culture term includes ways of living, use of visual language, shared history and stories, and common values among people with diverse deaf characteristics within family, school, work, and social circles.
Hearing spouses/siblings of deaf adults (SODA), hearing children of deaf adults (CODA) and hearing parents of deaf children may be considered a part of deaf culture.
Diverse groups within the deaf community include those based on ethnicity, gender, lifestyle, career, leisure, and age. Yet within these groups, many deaf people as well as their hearing family members share similar experiences, tendencies, desires, and goals.
For examples, flexibility of communication modes, encouraging eye contact, use of auxiliary aids, participating in deaf festivals and sport competitions and/or others.
Deaf Cultural Programming
Programs or series of programs presented by libraries that seek to entertain, enlighten, educate, and involve adult and family audiences, primarily in the disciplines of the deaf arts and deaf community issues.
Deaf Diversity
Differences in age, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, and/or lifestyle of people who share common characteristics of hearing losses and/or deaf culture.
Also refers to Deaf Interest Groups.
Deaf Heritage
A deaf cultural tradition that passes from one generation to the next in a social group.
Deaf History
A narrative of events and life of a people, an institution, or a place concerning the deaf community of the past to the present.
Deaf Interest Groups
The following groups are associated with the deaf community, including hearing individuals; each group may include those who are blind and/or have cerebral palsy, physical, learning or life-functioning challenges or others.
Children; Young adults; Post-secondary students; Older adults; Members of diverse ethnic groups; Members of various religious traditions; Rural populations; Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals; Homeless and transient people; Prisoners; People at work; People at leisure; People in need of health care; People recovering from various kinds of abuse and others.
Deaf-Related Organizations
Nonprofit, for profit, government-supported programs, public services and social groups, all having at least one specialization for meeting the needs of one or more deaf interest groups, regardless of their communication modes.
Disability
This term is often used by government agencies and advocacy groups to imply their commitment to serving cross-disability populations, including deaf and hard of hearing, ensuring their rights to be treated as people first for full participation in the democratic process as contributing members of the society.
Accepted terminology about disabilities changes regularly over years but the primary rule is to put people first. (E.g. people with disabilities not disabled people).
Finger spelling or the manual alphabet
A method of representing the letters of the alphabet with the hand.
There are different manual alphabets used to code different languages. The one-handed American Manual alphabet is a code for English orthography. A two-handed manual alphabet is used mostly in Britain and former British colonies.
Grassroots community
This term consists of people--deaf and hearing--at a local level instead of the political center regardless of their economical and educational backgrounds.
Hard of Hearing
This term applies to a culture of people with hearing losses, ranging from mild to profound, but not total. Some have a connection with the deaf culture.
Hearing
Deaf people use this term to identify a culture of people who can hear whether or not they are associated with the deaf community.
Hearing Loss
This term applies to people of all ages who live through it, ranging from mild to profound.
Late-Deafened adult
An adult who acquires hearing loss after acquiring speech and experiences a significant life change as a result
Library community
This term consists of librarians, library workers, trustees, friends, supporters and customers, deaf and hearing, who have a connection with academic, public, school and/or special libraries. Some organizations, such as government offices, museums, businesses, and nonprofit organizations, own a special collection related to the deaf community or have a library with trained personnel.
Signer
A person who uses sign language and manual alphabet to communicate with other signing people.
A visual- gestural language having its own rules of grammar and is mostly used by deaf people in the United States and Canada.
ASL Community
This term consists of signing individuals of all ages, regardless of their hearing status, who share one common characteristic of deaf culture.
Deaf
Partially or completely lacking in the sense of hearing.
Deaf-Blind
Partially or completely lacking in the sense of either or both hearing and seeing.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
This term is often used by government agencies and advocacy groups to imply their commitment to serving both groups of deaf and hard of hearing consumers and/or members.
Deaf Community
This term consists of individuals with varying communication modes and backgrounds, both deaf and hearing, who share common characteristics of hearing losses and/or deaf culture.
Here, for our purposes, the term - Deaf Community - consists of individuals with varying communication modes and backgrounds, both deaf and hearing, who share common characteristics of hearing losses and/or deaf culture.
- People who may identify themselves as deaf, Deaf, culturally deaf, hard-of-hearing, hearing, early-deafened, late-deafened, hearing impaired, deaf-mute, hearing-mute, or as having a hearing loss or hearing disability or other.
- People whose primary language is a sign language.
- Family members of the above two .
- People who have a career and/or specific interests in deaf culture, sign language, diversity, hearing losses, auxiliary aids, disabilities and/or others.
- People of the above four who are blind, have cerebral palsy, and/or have come into confront with physical learning and life-functioning challenges.
Deaf Culture
The shared arts, customs, folklore, history, traditions, and values that are connected to some members of the deaf community.
For our purposes, the deaf culture term includes ways of living, use of visual language, shared history and stories, and common values among people with diverse deaf characteristics within family, school, work, and social circles.
Hearing spouses/siblings of deaf adults (SODA), hearing children of deaf adults (CODA) and hearing parents of deaf children may be considered a part of deaf culture.
Diverse groups within the deaf community include those based on ethnicity, gender, lifestyle, career, leisure, and age. Yet within these groups, many deaf people as well as their hearing family members share similar experiences, tendencies, desires, and goals.
For examples, flexibility of communication modes, encouraging eye contact, use of auxiliary aids, participating in deaf festivals and sport competitions and/or others.
Deaf Cultural Programming
Programs or series of programs presented by libraries that seek to entertain, enlighten, educate, and involve adult and family audiences, primarily in the disciplines of the deaf arts and deaf community issues.
Deaf Diversity
Differences in age, ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, and/or lifestyle of people who share common characteristics of hearing losses and/or deaf culture.
Also refers to Deaf Interest Groups.
Deaf Heritage
A deaf cultural tradition that passes from one generation to the next in a social group.
Deaf History
A narrative of events and life of a people, an institution, or a place concerning the deaf community of the past to the present.
Deaf Interest Groups
The following groups are associated with the deaf community, including hearing individuals; each group may include those who are blind and/or have cerebral palsy, physical, learning or life-functioning challenges or others.
Children; Young adults; Post-secondary students; Older adults; Members of diverse ethnic groups; Members of various religious traditions; Rural populations; Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals; Homeless and transient people; Prisoners; People at work; People at leisure; People in need of health care; People recovering from various kinds of abuse and others.
Deaf-Related Organizations
Nonprofit, for profit, government-supported programs, public services and social groups, all having at least one specialization for meeting the needs of one or more deaf interest groups, regardless of their communication modes.
Disability
This term is often used by government agencies and advocacy groups to imply their commitment to serving cross-disability populations, including deaf and hard of hearing, ensuring their rights to be treated as people first for full participation in the democratic process as contributing members of the society.
Accepted terminology about disabilities changes regularly over years but the primary rule is to put people first. (E.g. people with disabilities not disabled people).
Finger spelling or the manual alphabet
A method of representing the letters of the alphabet with the hand.
There are different manual alphabets used to code different languages. The one-handed American Manual alphabet is a code for English orthography. A two-handed manual alphabet is used mostly in Britain and former British colonies.
Grassroots community
This term consists of people--deaf and hearing--at a local level instead of the political center regardless of their economical and educational backgrounds.
Hard of Hearing
This term applies to a culture of people with hearing losses, ranging from mild to profound, but not total. Some have a connection with the deaf culture.
Hearing
Deaf people use this term to identify a culture of people who can hear whether or not they are associated with the deaf community.
Hearing Loss
This term applies to people of all ages who live through it, ranging from mild to profound.
Late-Deafened adult
An adult who acquires hearing loss after acquiring speech and experiences a significant life change as a result
Library community
This term consists of librarians, library workers, trustees, friends, supporters and customers, deaf and hearing, who have a connection with academic, public, school and/or special libraries. Some organizations, such as government offices, museums, businesses, and nonprofit organizations, own a special collection related to the deaf community or have a library with trained personnel.
Signer
A person who uses sign language and manual alphabet to communicate with other signing people.
How People Hear
Hearing is a series of events in which the ear converts sound waves into electrical signals and causes nerve impulses to be sent to the brain, where they are interpreted as sound. The ear has three main parts: the outer ear and reach the middle ear, where they cause the eardrum to vibrate. The vibrations are transmitted through three tiny bones in the middle ear called the ossicles. These three bones are named the malleus, incus, and stapes (and are also known as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup). The eardrum and ossicles amplify the vibrations and carry them to the inner ear. The stirrup transmits the amplified vibrations through the oval window and into the fluid that fills the inner ear. The vibrations move through fluid in the snail-shaped hearing part of the inner ear (cochlea) that contains the hair cells. The fluid in the cochlea moves the top portion of the hair cells, called the hair bundle, which initiates the changes that lead to the production of the nerve impulses.
These nerve impulses are carried to the brain, where they are interpreted as sound. Different sounds move the population of hair cells in different ways, thus allowing the brain to distinguish among various sounds, such as different vowel and consonant sounds.
Two Types of Hearing Loss
1. Conductive due to the disruption of the transmission of sound through the center and/or middle ear Otitis media (chronic and acute) is the main cause of conductive hearing loss for children.
2. Sensorineural due to sensory or nerve damage in the inner ear, auditory nerve, or auditory cortex of the brain Noise -- explosions, rock music, heavy machinery – is the main cause of sensorineural hearing loss.
When both types occur together, it is called mixed which may rise from an infection or from a surgery.
People, who were born deaf, would not want to identify themselves as people with hearing losses. In other words, they actually never lost their hearing after they were born.
Cochlear Implants
A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf. The implant is surgically placed under the skin behind the ear.
An implant has four basic parts: (1) a microphone, which picks up sound from the environment; (2) a speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone; (3) a transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receives signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses, and (4) electrodes, which collect the impulses from the stimulator and send them to the brain.
An implant does not restore or create normal hearing. Instead, under the appropriate conditions, it can give a deaf person a useful auditory understanding of the environment and help her or him to understand speech. A cochlear implant is very different from a hearing aid. Hearing aids amplify sound. Cochlear implants compensate for damaged or non-working parts of the inner ear.
Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, United States http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/
Hearing is a series of events in which the ear converts sound waves into electrical signals and causes nerve impulses to be sent to the brain, where they are interpreted as sound. The ear has three main parts: the outer ear and reach the middle ear, where they cause the eardrum to vibrate. The vibrations are transmitted through three tiny bones in the middle ear called the ossicles. These three bones are named the malleus, incus, and stapes (and are also known as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup). The eardrum and ossicles amplify the vibrations and carry them to the inner ear. The stirrup transmits the amplified vibrations through the oval window and into the fluid that fills the inner ear. The vibrations move through fluid in the snail-shaped hearing part of the inner ear (cochlea) that contains the hair cells. The fluid in the cochlea moves the top portion of the hair cells, called the hair bundle, which initiates the changes that lead to the production of the nerve impulses.
These nerve impulses are carried to the brain, where they are interpreted as sound. Different sounds move the population of hair cells in different ways, thus allowing the brain to distinguish among various sounds, such as different vowel and consonant sounds.
Two Types of Hearing Loss
1. Conductive due to the disruption of the transmission of sound through the center and/or middle ear Otitis media (chronic and acute) is the main cause of conductive hearing loss for children.
2. Sensorineural due to sensory or nerve damage in the inner ear, auditory nerve, or auditory cortex of the brain Noise -- explosions, rock music, heavy machinery – is the main cause of sensorineural hearing loss.
When both types occur together, it is called mixed which may rise from an infection or from a surgery.
People, who were born deaf, would not want to identify themselves as people with hearing losses. In other words, they actually never lost their hearing after they were born.
Cochlear Implants
A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf. The implant is surgically placed under the skin behind the ear.
An implant has four basic parts: (1) a microphone, which picks up sound from the environment; (2) a speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone; (3) a transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receives signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses, and (4) electrodes, which collect the impulses from the stimulator and send them to the brain.
An implant does not restore or create normal hearing. Instead, under the appropriate conditions, it can give a deaf person a useful auditory understanding of the environment and help her or him to understand speech. A cochlear implant is very different from a hearing aid. Hearing aids amplify sound. Cochlear implants compensate for damaged or non-working parts of the inner ear.
Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, United States http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/