Comparing the Medical and Cultural Views of Deafness

The medical perspective and the cultural perspective of deafness are quite different. Because doctors almost always have a hearing perspective of deafness and look at it as a disability, impairment, or handicap to be treated so that patients can enjoy hearing, almost invariably medical specialists propose treatment, such as implants or speech therapy, in order to help enable deaf individuals to get along in a hearing world. In contrast, Deaf culture focuses on the strengths rather than the weaknesses of deafness and see deafness not as a disability but as a linguistic minority. Never having experienced deafness themselves, this cultural view often baffles hearing people. Nevertheless, many Deaf people are proud to be Deaf, not just deaf with a lowercase d, meaning unable to hear, but Deaf with a capital D, meaning they are part of the culture.

Thus, in the audiogram below you can see the differences in the labels that the medical view and the cultural view of deafness apply. Notice that the cultural view has gray areas because from a cultural perspective, individuals largely define where they see themselves in the culture. Some people who have profound hearing loss consider themselves to be hard of hearing, while some people who have mild or moderate hearing loss consider themselves to be Deaf.

Source: Oregon Disabilities Commission and Lectures by Mark Azure.