Hard of Hearing and Hearing Impaired

[Bencie Woll]

The first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary for hard-of-hearing is in
1564! (see citations below)

1564 Child Marriages, etc. (E.E.T.S.) 134 The testatrixe was hard of 
hearinge. 1858 DICKENS 1861 {emem} Gt. Expect. xxxvii, I am hard of 
hearing. 1950 Lancet
11 Nov. 532/2 Practical courses..on audiometry and hearing-aids,
hard-of-hearing children, [etc.]. 1968 Brit. Med. Bull. XXIV. 256/2 There may
be a real problem in distinguishing the hard of hearing from those with 
organic
intellectual impairment or autism.

Hearing-impaired is, as you thought, much later

hearing-impaired adj. and n. orig. U.S. (a) adj.designating a person with
hearing impairment or loss; hard of hearing; (b) n.(with the) hearing-impaired
people collectively (with pl. concord).
1946 Charleroi (Pa.) 24 May 8/2 Favorable results are obtained if the special
considerations that are shown the *hearing impaired child are done without
calling attention to the defect. 1960 B. MORKOVIN Through Barriers of Deafness
& Isolation I. ii. 12 (heading) Medical aspects of the hearing-impaired. 1995
Freedom (Canada) Spring 48/1, I had become Julie's confidante when she learned
that my daughter, like herself, was hearing-impaired.

Cheers

Bencie Woll

Quoting "Grushkin, Donald A" <grushkind at csus.edu>:

> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm preparing a couple of articles for publication, and would like 
> some help if possible.  I am attempting to determine the origin or 
> first usage of the terms "hard of hearing" and "hearing impaired".  I 
> have been unable to locate any sources that point to when these terms 
> first were used, or who originated them.
>
> For hard of hearing, I am making the assertion that this term likely 
> began around the beginning of the 20th century, when modern 
> electronic audiology made it possible to more precisely determine 
> individuals' hearing ability.  Prior to this period, I have found 
> references to "mutes", "semi-mutes", "only deaf" and "semi-deaf", but 
> no "hard of hearing".  I do suspect, however, that "hard of hearing" 
> might have been in folk usage prior to the 1900s to describe older 
> persons who were beginning to lose their hearing.
>
> For hearing impaired, I have the general feeling that this term began 
> around the 1970s to 1980s as a "politically correct" alternative to 
> "deaf" or "hard of hearing".  Who started the term or exactly when, I 
> do not know, but thinking back, I cannot recall seeing the use of 
> 'hearing impaired" before this, but then again, I might have been too 
> young then to really know or notice.
>
> So, can anyone provide me with sources supporting or refuting my 
> perceptions?    My apologies here to those of you who are seeing this 
> cross-posted.
>
> --Don Grushkin
>
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-- 
Professor Bencie Woll, BA, MA, PhD
Chair of Sign Language and Deaf Studies & Director, DCAL Centre
University College London
49 Gordon Square
London WC1H 0PD
Tel: 020 7679 8670
Fax: 020 7679 8691
b.woll at ucl.ac.uk  www.dcal.ucl.ac.uk

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