A person who identifies as being deaf with a lowercase ‘d’ is indicating that they have a significant hearing impairment. Many deaf people lose their hearing later in life and may be able to speak and / or read English to the same extent as a hearing person. A person who identifies as being Deaf with an uppercase ‘D’ is indicating that they are culturally Deaf and belong to the Deaf community. Most Deaf people are sign language users and may have a limited ability to read, write or speak English.
deaf
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