D ‘n’ d: The Debate Over Whether to Capitalize the “d” in “deaf

The deaf community is highly diverse. A deaf person may be Black or white, may have one disability or many, may be cisgender or not, and on and on, stretching to pretty much every possible marginalization. 

The flavor of deaf experience also varies widely, from people who have no particular useful hearing to those who have assistive devices like cochlear implants or hearing aids that provide enough sound that they are comfortable communicating via aural channels. It includes people who are fluent in sign language and those who are not, people whose entire families are deaf (rare) and those who are the only deaf person in their entire families (much more common). It is therefore perhaps not surprising that it can be hard to find consensus about some issues across the entire community! 

Here I have used the lowercase “deaf” to mean “anyone who is not hearing,” much like the word “queer” is used to mean “anyone who is not straight.” This use specifically includes people who identify as culturally deaf and those who do not, and while not universal, this usage is fairly widely accepted.

But where things get more complicated is when we look at when to use the capitalized “D,” as in, “My entire family is Deaf.”

The capital-d “Deaf” is strongly associated with the Deaf Pride movement that gathered steam during the Deaf President Now (DPN) protest at Gallaudet University in 1988. Gallaudet describes itself as the “educational, political, social, and economic engine of the deaf and signing community on a national and global scale for more than 150 years.” When a hearing president was chosen for this bastion of deaf empowerment, a huge protest began, which culminated in the selection of I. King Jordan as the first deaf president of Gallaudet. 

The DPN protest was hugely influential in the deaf community and in the disability community at large. It is credited with helping to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

This usage of the capital “D” is meant to indicate both pride in deafness and to separate out the medical condition (lack of hearing) from the culture (sign language, cultural mores, etc.). 

I used the capital “D” until about ten years ago, when there started to be more and more conversations among deaf friends of mine and also national deaf organizations, deaf linguists, and other influential deaf people about what this separation accomplished, in practice.

Especially, there was increasing concern that while there are some people who would be obviously “deaf,” (like a 75-year-old grandma who just recently started using hearing aids), and some people who would be obviously “Deaf” (like a third-generation graduate of Gallaudet who was born deaf and whose parents are deaf), there is a vast middle for whom it is less obvious. What about the teenager who received cochlear implants at age two, whose family is hearing, who went to hearing (mainstream) schools, and who is just starting to learn sign and is reveling in the freedom and access that sign language provides? Are they deaf or Deaf? Who decides, and what are the effects?

You might notice that in the quote I used above from Gallaudet – in many ways, the absolute center of deaf culture – they chose to use the lowercase. That is true of many influential deaf organizations, including CSD (Communication Service for the Deaf) and NDC (National Deaf Center). I really like how NDC puts it:

The National Deaf Center is using the term deaf in an all-inclusive manner, to include people who may identify as deaf, deafblind, deafdisabled, hard of hearing, late-deafened, and hearing impaired. NDC recognizes that for many individuals, identity is fluid and can change over time or with setting. NDC has chosen to use one term, deaf, with the goal of recognizing experiences that are shared by all members of our diverse communities while also honoring all of our differences.

For a while, in my sensitivity readings, I was recommending that the lowercase be used at all times. However, I have changed my stance on that. Many deaf people do still feel very strongly about using the capital D and do not want to give that up.

In news/nonfiction contexts, I recommend that the journalist ask the deaf person for their preference and abide by that. In fictional contexts, I tend to just explain some of the factors at play and leave it there, without a strong recommendation.

I would love to see the deaf community reach a consensus on this, and personally, the consensus I would like to see is what NDC lays out, above. That is how I currently use “deaf,” myself. But I also do understand why some people feel strongly about holding on to the Deaf Pride elements of using the capital D, and I no longer try too hard to move that needle. In a community as diverse as ours, sometimes consensus just isn’t going to happen.

Maybe it will, eventually! In the meantime, I will continue to listen to the many smart deaf people who are discussing this issue, and maybe my mind will change, again.