OK, this is fucking hilarious:

Defining who is “deaf enough” always gives me chest pain. For one thing, that’s a bludgeon the Deaf Culture uses to beat many deafened people with. Whether they intend to leave deafened people bleeding on the sidewalk outside the deaf club (figuratively), that is a frequent emotional consequence, and I personally reject contrived and imposed definitions of “deaf enough”.

at http://www.deafened.org/defining.htm by way of http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2006/10/defining-deafened.html although please note that I don’t read the latter column for the politics :uhoh: !

OK, lessee, my credentials…

• born deaf (ooh, 5 points!)
• oral education (oops, minus 20!)
• 90db hearing loss (ooh! plus 10!)
• bilateral (ooh! plus 5!)
• no ASL or other signing knowledge (oops, minus 50!)
• I scrape by the telephone test (oops, minus 10!)
• yeah I “hear” sound if I see it (ooh! plus 5!)
• never went to deaf school (oops, minus 15!)
• don’t have deaf parents (oops, minus 50!)
• I’m still alive (hm, call it minus 5!)
• I do think the term “hearing impaired” is silly, but I’ll use it if I think it will be more comprehensible more quickly to someone else although I consider myself deaf (neutral, no points)