Deafness

A hearing loss profound enough that a person cannot rely on hearing as the primary channel for language and environmental awareness, typically defined audiologically as a loss of 90 decibels or more in the better ear. Deafness exists on a spectrum and has strong cultural dimensions: capitalized 'Deaf' identifies with Deaf communities that use a signed language (such as ASL, BSL, or Korean Sign Language) as a first language, while lowercase 'deaf' typically describes the audiological condition. Accessibility approaches for deaf users include captions, sign language interpretation, visual and haptic alerts, and transcription services, though preferences vary widely by onset age, communication background, and whether the user identifies with Deaf culture.