What is the difference between a profound hearing loss and severe hearing loss?
Jamie S asked:
I see these words on my audio gram. Am I technically deaf or just badly hard of hearing?
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I see these words on my audio gram. Am I technically deaf or just badly hard of hearing?
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:37 am
You didn’t provide the details of your hearing loss or your age, so my best guess is you’re “technically” deaf because ‘hard of hearing’ is generally associated with ‘mild’ and ‘moderate’ groups.
Mild (25-40 dB) - (mildly) hard of hearing
Moderate (40-70 dB) - hard of hearing or deaf (it’s common for one to say they’re “deaf in one ear,” though)
Severe (70-90 dB) - deafened or deaf
Profound (91 dB or more) - deaf
A detailed summary for each category can be found here:
(It’s important to note that a belief that deaf people (e.g. sign language users) couldn’t hear at all is a common misconception. In fact, total deafness is a rarity.)
February 4th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Profound is more severe than severe. Both a person with a profound or severe hearing loss is deaf. And person with any degree of hearing loss - even mild - is deaf. But most people with mild to moderate hearing loss call themselves hard of hearing. Some people who are hard of hearing do not think of themselves as disabled.
A person who also uses sign language and considers themselves culturally deaf - capitalizes the D in deaf and may or may not consider them self to be disabled.