A question about deafness vs. hearing impaired

[La Lioness Priyanka]

So i was a bar, when this girl started talking to me and honestly I was just trying to get my drink and get out of there. Anyway, suddenly she said something that made me say "well my stepmother teaches the hearing impaired". To which she got very upset, and gave me a 3 min lecture on how the words hearing impaired was very insulting to the deaf community.

I know there is a community of people who identify as deaf; however i did not know that 'hearing impaired' was insulting.

Now, my step-mother is in India and she would always correct me if i said deaf, and would ask me to say hearing impaired.

My BFF identifies as hearing impaired not deaf.

So, to others who are part of these communities, is hearing impaired insulting for the deaf?

[KamaAina]

1. Many people with hearing loss, but not total deafness, identify as "hard of hearing"

also, there is a distinction between deaf (unable to hear) and Deaf (signifies membership in a distinct culture built around American Sign Language).

Yeah, that "impaired" kind of sticks in the craw.

[uppityperson]

2. I had a fried whose parents were part of the "deafie community", their words. I am hard of hearing.

They did not like being referred to as "impaired" and were fully deaf and very adament about it. Me, I can still hear some, am fine with hard of hearing, have not really ran into "hearing impaired".

I think it depends on the person, am not insulted by "impaired", though am respectful and apologize if someone is and would understand as ot does have a more negative connotation.

Crippled. Handicapped. Differently abled.
Deaf. Hearing Impaired.
Different ways of considering something.

[Rozlee]

3. Hell if I know.

I lost some hearing to my left ear after a seizure, an occurrence that puzzled my neurologists. I always figured if I lost the hearing in one ear, no big deal, I've got a spare. But, without my hearing aide, I can't tell if someone's telling me that a dancing bear is nice or my hair has lice. But, I wasn't born deaf or associate with the community of deaf individuals, so I can't claim to understand what it's like to have severe hearing loss or no hearing at all. It was chastening to see people annoyed and repeating themselves constantly to me before I got my hearing aide or treating me like I was simple-minded because I kept misunderstanding them. It must be devastating to others who have much greater disability. My heart goes out to them.

[Zorra]

4. I am somewhat hearing impaired

from the type of work that I have done for most of my life.

I tell people I am hard of hearing all the time.

[rustydog]

5. I love it, really love it when someone speaks for an entire community

Who gives a flying, you know what, if it is deaf, or hearing impaired?

Your hearing is impaired...or you have degrees of deafness... How many homeless people slept under bridges last week? Is Santa really white?

By the way, I've been deaf/ hearing impaired for all of my adult life. I don't give a rats ass what you call it. can't hear. Plain and simple.

[11 Bravo]

6. There is a community of people whose ears don't work the same way as mine do who insist ...

that the fact their ears don't function quite like mine is not an "impairment". (And I hope I said that in a sufficiently inoffensive manner.)