There are hundreds or thousands of news outlets, including the big names of news companies, medium companies, and unknown companies, that everybody reads daily to gather information about what is happening in this country, whether in the United States or internationally. Some people don’t follow or keep up with current events or news about what is happening locally, nationally, and globally. But several people do keep up with the news, including myself, so we can be informed about what is happening in our country here in the United States or in other countries. There are a few services that allow some of us to personalize some news that we would like to get daily under our favorite sources, such as Google News, Yahoo News, Bing News, and some news apps like that news app in iOS 10 that allows you to personalize the way news you want them to come to you. My go-to for getting some information and news is Google News, which allows me only to get most of the news from the sources/news outlet that I prefer, and there is other news related that I personalized to get. For example, United States, Politics, World, Technology, Business, Social Media, Domain, Hosting, Deaf, Kentucky, and West Virginia are my related news picks. Not in a particular order; nonetheless, I saw an article that relates to Deaf news that had a video in that article. I decided to check the video out, which of course, burst my bubbles as I am tired of some journalists, reporters, editors, or bloggers labeling Deaf people poorly, whether it be intentional or unintentional.
The point is that it wasn’t their intention to choose a poor word to label us Deaf and Hard of Hearing people; that shows that they aren’t keeping up with what is going on in the Deaf community enough to write an article about us then poorly chose a word for the label of us.
Stop Labeling Deaf And Hard of Hearing with that word.
That word I am referring to is hearing-impaired. Many of us dislike that word; many of us, including myself, find the word “Hearing-Impaired” offensive and insulting. A few of us contacted the news outlet to politely demand that they remove hearing-impaired from their brain and call us what we are. Suppose you will write a piece about us, air it on television, or make a video. In that case, we ask that you only label us either Deaf or Hard of Hearing; the first thing to do is to find out what that person is with the question “Are you Deaf or are you Hard of Hearing?” and use whichever that person you interview or write a piece about answered your question I gave. I genuinely appreciate and recognize that Huffington Post let the editors know that when it comes to choosing a word for labeling that they are to call us Deaf and or Hard of Hearing depending on which one it is that person you are speaking of or if it is a group then call it Deaf community or Deaf and (not or) Hard of Hearing. I highly encourage other news outlets to follow Huffington Post’s example, that it would mean some respect for all of us, and while at the same time, journalists, editors, or reporters wouldn’t be making fools of themselves to millions of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people in the world.
What burst my bubbles? A news company named Inside Edition on YouTube with a title saying “Hearing-Impaired Is Killed By Cop, Here’s How Hearing Impaired Drivers Can Be Safe” on YouTube.
As you know, about a month ago or so, recently there was a Deaf man named Daniel Harris who was killed by happy-trigger police when Daniel Harris was speeding due to fear of the police and hurried himself to his residence. Then by the time he arrived there, he had parked his vehicle and was immediately shot on the spot without any dialogue, such as when he stepped out of the car. You can read my article about Daniel Harris and how police treat Deaf and Hard of Hearing people below.
https://joshiesworld.com/police-doesnt-protect-deaf/
Nevertheless, the bottom line is we ask all the news and media outlets to label us properly, which is Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Instead, labeling us hearing-impaired is considered offensive and insulting to the Deaf community. If some of them start labeling us Deaf and Hard of Hearing, that shows more professionalism, like Huffington Post, sometimes CNN, or others. I have condemned Inside Edition via Twitter for labeling us Hearing-Impaired, pointing out that it is offensive and insulting to them, which you can find my post on Twitter there. I am talking about this because I get tired of seeing some old-fashioned people still labeling us as Hearing-Impaired in the title of whatever they are writing or recording. I am calling you Inside Edition out, change that video title by replacing the hearing-impaired drivers with Deaf drivers, and then that would be the first step for you to look more professional. I politely ask all of your news and media outlets that if you have anything that says hearing-impaired, please replace them with Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Anyone willing to refuse to do so shows that they disrespect our culture, and that is one of many reasons that hearing-impaired is considered an offensive word to us because we don’t look at it as a disability anymore as we have realized that we are culturally Deaf and Hard of Hearing. In my personal belief, I think that we all might as well call ourselves Deaf for once of all and ditch Hard of Hearing so that we can all have one name to call ourselves. If it were me, I would prefer to label myself Deaf because that is what it is (Deaf is an umbrella word for all others, such as Hard of Hearing, Deaf+, etc.). Still, being a blogger, I would at least respect some who call themselves Hard of Hearing, and I am one of them in the group Hard of Hearing, but I consider myself Deaf.
How is hearing impaired offensive and insulting? Okay, I will give you a metaphor picture to imagine it yourself and tell me. Often, minorities have offensive words, for example, black people with the N-word, which is unacceptable, calling Gay people with the F-word, which is also unacceptable, and that goes the same way with calling us Deaf people Hearing-Impaired which is also unacceptable! So basically, you reporters, editors, or bloggers label us hearing-impaired as if you call us the N-word, F-word, or other words for different minorities. Of course, all of you at news and media outlets have the common sense not to that such words for these minorities but yet call us Deaf and Hard of Hearing “Hearing-Impaired”? So get the picture here, halfwits.
Good, good. I know that most of you news and media outlets use specific platforms to post articles or to upload a video has a feature where you can replace the word for hearing-impaired to Deaf if individual, Hard of Hearing if individual, Deaf and Hard of Hearing if a group that is mixed with them. So it should take you no more than a few minutes to replace it, and I ask that you do so because if I come across one with that word from any news or media outlets, I will publicly condemn you and repeatedly ask you to replace that word until you replaced it.
P.S. A lot of desktops and laptops or smartphones or tablets have auto-correction. I am almost positive it will show you that the hearing-impaired word is incorrect and asks you to correct it. When you click on that word in that list, it will show “Deaf” or “Hard of Hearing”.
Here’s an excellent video by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) talking about media experts group on how to write about the Deaf and or Hard of Hearing. I am not sure if it has a voice-over, but if not, you can enable the closed captions as it provides closed captions and enable the closed captions by clicking the closed caption at the bottom corner of the video.
To Deaf and Hard of Hearing
If you see any news, movies, videos, or anything online or on some materials, have some balls and demand them to correct them. Because that is not acceptable, as it is offensive and insulting to you and us, this shall not be taken lightly.
Thank You
For some of these who had decided to replace the hearing-impaired with Deaf and Hard of Hearing long before I wrote this, thank you! In particular, Huffington Post and other editors realized it’s incorrect to call us that words. It shows that they are more professional than others who still label us as Hearing-Impaired, and I hope that some of them, if not all, will follow your fine example for once of all. Also, thank you for raising awareness of this problem with your connections and your employees, as I have seen a few of the people via Twitter who are editors themselves asking some of the others to replace hearing-impaired with the right words. My hats off to some of you who did that.
And The End
I would greatly appreciate it if you shared this article on social media and mentioned as many news and media outlets as possible when you shared this article. For example, using Twitter, use the symbol @ and type handler. Or on Facebook, only use @ symbol and type the company name. Then, it should show up their name in the drop list, and click their name. In the comment below, I would love to hear your thoughts about using hearing-impaired words by news and media outlets!
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
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