Different types of hearing loss

People who are deaf

• We use the term people who are deaf in a general way when we are talking about people with all degrees of hearing loss.

People who are hard of hearing

• We use the term hard of hearing to describe people with mild to severe hearing loss. We quite often use it to describe people who have lost their hearing gradually.

People who are deafened

• People who were born hearing and became severely or profoundly deaf after learning to speak are often described as deafened. This can happen either suddenly or gradually.