Acceptance of Hearing Loss and Adjustment of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Young Adults

Responses to the possibility to cure deafness were used in the present study as an indirect measure of acceptance of the hearing impairment and general adjustment pattern of Hard of Hearing (HH) and Deaf(D) young adults. Data from 43 members of the Organization of Hard of Hearing and Deafened and from 49 members of the Association of the Deaf were collected by structured interviews. Data included background information, areas of difficulties as well as responses to the possibility to cure deafness—for the subjects themselves and for various groups of hearing impaired people. The results indicated that the two research groups were similar in terms of degree of hearing loss, level of education and the difficulties they faced. Compared to the Deaf (D) group, the Hard of Hearing (HH) group had later age at onset and fewer of them were married. The vast majority of the D group did not show motivation to change their situation whereas the majority of the HH group did. Furthermore, the HH group did not acknowledge the possibility that at least some deaf people do adjust to their hearing impairment and prefer not to change their situation. The significance of these results in terms of the adjustment processes of the two groups was discussed