Hearing-impaired—A term much preferred by hearing people, largely because they view it as politically correct. In the mainstream society, to boldly state ones disability (e.g., deaf, blind, etc.) is somewhat rude and impolite.

Is it politically correct to call someone deaf?

“Deaf” and “deaf” We use the lowercase deaf when referring to the audiological condition of not hearing, and the uppercase Deaf when referring to a particular group of deaf people who share a language – American Sign Language (ASL) – and a culture.