The current heading is “Hearing impaired,” which is nearly universally considered by deaf and hard of hearing people and organizations to be outdated and no longer acceptable to the community.
On March 16, 2022, a group of University of Washington iSchool students (Ruby Vail, Kelsey Kurfurst, Jane Kern, and Melissa Fallon) submitted a proposal to change the heading (see their proposal below). Since there were over 100 related headings, LC postponed making any changes to this area.
With the formation of the Medical Subject Funnel in early 2023, the funnel members took on the task of determining the 102 headings and 187 LCC captions that needed to be revised with this project, including changing “Hearing impaired” to “Hard of hearing people” and “Deaf” to “Deaf people.” See the project spreadsheet with all related headings. After receiving feedback from LC, the proposals were submitted in December 2023 and will be scheduled to be discussed on the March 2024 tentative list.
The proposal to revise “Hearing impaired” LCSH:
053 0 $a HV2350 $b HV2990.5 $c Social welfare
150 $a Hard of hearing people
450 $a Hard-of-hearing
450 $a Hearing disorders $x Patients
450 $w nne $a Hearing impaired
450 $a Partial hearing
450 $a Partially hearing
550 $w g $a People with disabilities
670 $a Encyclopedia of American Disability History, 2009: $b page 438 (Thus, for the Deaf, being called “hearing impaired” is viewed as “audist” in that it would imply the group supports the label’s emphasis as a psychological center and connotation that through being viewed as “impaired,” one is “broken” or “less than whole.”) $w (OCoLC)166382573
670 $a National Association of the Deaf website, viewed December 15, 2023: $b Community and Culture – Frequently Asked Questions page (Hearing-impaired – This term is no longer accepted by most in the community but was at one time preferred, largely because it was viewed as politically correct.) $u https://www.nad.org/resources/american-sign-language/community-and-culture-frequently-asked-questions/
670 $a World Federation of the Deaf website, viewed December 15, 2023: $b 2013 Co-operation Agreement between World Federation of the Deaf and the International Federation of Hard of Hearing People, page 2 (both organizations agree that the term “hearing impaired” is not an appropriate term and that deaf and hard of hearing individuals should not be identified under this single category) $u https://wfdeaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/MoU-IFHOH.pdf
_______________
Proposal from University of Washington iSchool students (Ruby Vail, Kelsey Kurfurst, Jane Kern, and Melissa Fallon) in March 2022.
[new and revised fields highlighted]
008/06: __X___ (May Subd Geog)
053 $a HV2350 $b HV2990.5 $c Social welfare
150 $a Hard of hearing people
450 $w nne $a Hearing impaired
450 $a Hard-of-hearing
450 $a Hearing disorders $x Patients
450 $a Partial hearing
450 $a Partially hearing
550 $w g $a People with disabilities
670 $a Work cat.: 2021044827: Deaf and hard of hearing multilingual learners, 2022.
670 $a National Association of the Deaf webpage, viewed online March 13, 2022: $b Community and Culture – Frequently Asked Questions (Hearing-impaired: This term is no longer accepted by most in the community but was at one time preferred, largely because it was viewed as politically correct. […] Instead, the term “hearing-impaired” is viewed as negative. The term focuses on what people can’t do. It establishes the standard as “hearing” and anything different as “impaired,” or substandard, hindered, or damaged. It implies that something is not as it should be and ought to be fixed if possible.) $u https://www.nad.org/resources/american-sign-language/community-and-culture-frequently-asked-questions/
670 $a Canadian Association of the Deaf webpage, viewed online March 13, 2022: $b terminology (Hearing Impaired: This term is not acceptable in referring to people with a hearing loss. It should never be used in referring to deaf people. “Hearing Impaired” is a medical condition; it is not a collective noun for people who have varying degrees of hearing loss. It fails to recognize the differences between the Deaf and hard of hearing communities.) $u http://cad.ca/issues-positions/terminology/
670 $a 2008030537: Encyclopedia of American Disability History, 2009: $b page 438 (Thus, for the Deaf, being called “hearing impaired” is viewed as “audist” in that it would imply the group supports the label’s emphasis as a psychological center and connotation that through being viewed as “impaired,” one is “broken” or “less than whole.”)
LC pattern: Autistic people
submitted by: Ruby Vail, Kelsey Kurfurst, Jane Kern, and Melissa Fallon
All headings to be changed:
- Films for the hearing impaired
- change to: Films for hard of hearing people
- Hearing impaired
- change to: Hard of hearing people
- Hearing impaired–Books and reading
- change to: Hard of hearing people–Books and reading
- Hearing impaired–Books and reading–Mexico
- change to: Hard of hearing people–Books and reading–Mexico
- Hearing impaired–Books and reading–Mexico–Congresses
- change to: Hard of hearing people–Books and reading–Mexico–Congresses
- Hearing impaired children
- change to: Hard of hearing children
- 670 $a 2014037605: Social competence of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, 2015
- change to: Hard of hearing children
- Hearing impaired children–Education
- change to: Hard of hearing children–Education
- Hearing impaired children–Education–United States
- change to: Hard of hearing children–Education–United States
- Hearing impaired children–Means of communication
- change to: Hard of hearing children–Means of communication
- Hearing impaired children–Rehabilitation
- change to: Hard of hearing children–Rehabilitation
- Hearing impaired college students
- change to: Hard of hearing college students
- 670 $a Homogamy among deaf and hard of hearing college students, 2012
- change to: Hard of hearing college students
- Hearing impaired infants
- change to: Hard of hearing infants
- 670 $a 2015016508: Early intervention for deaf and hard-of-hearing infants, toddlers and their families, 2016
- change to: Hard of hearing infants
- Hearing impaired–Means of communication
- change to: Hard of hearing people–Means of communication
- Hearing impaired middle-aged persons
- change to: Hard of hearing middle-aged persons
- Hearing impaired–Rehabilitation
- change to: Hard of hearing people–Rehabilitation
- Hearing impaired–Services for
- change to: Hard of hearing people–Services for
- Hearing impaired students
- change to: Hard of hearing students
- 670 $a 2018493049: Improving education for deaf and hard of hearing students in California, 2016
- change to: Hard of hearing students
- Hearing impaired, Writings of the
- change to: Hard of hearing people’s writings
- LC pattern: Autistic people’s writings
- change to: Hard of hearing people’s writings
- Hearing impaired, Writings of the, American
- change to: Hard of hearing people’s writings, American
- LC pattern: Autistic people’s writings, French
- change to: Hard of hearing people’s writings, American
- Libraries and the hearing impaired
- change to: Libraries and hard of hearing people
- 670 $a Help! Libraries and the hard of hearing, 1982
- change to: Libraries and hard of hearing people
- Libraries–Special collections–Hearing impaired
- change to: Libraries–Special collections–Hard of hearing people
- Music for hearing impaired children
- change to: Music for hard of hearing children
- Music for the hearing impaired
- change to: Music for hard of hearing people
- Television for the hearing impaired
- change to: Television for hard of hearing people
- Video recordings for the hearing impaired
- change to: Video recordings for hard of hearing people
- Videoconferencing for the hearing impaired
- Change to: Videoconferencing for hard of hearing people
Other headings that need revision due to this change:
- Closed captioning
- change BT to: Hard of hearing–Services for
- Deaf
- change BT to: Hard of hearing people
- Deaf children
- change BT to: Hard of hearing children
- Deaf infants
- change BT to: Hard of hearing infants
- Deaf college students
- change BT to: Hard of hearing college students
- Deaf students
- change BT to: Hard of hearing students
- Hearing aids for children
- change BT to: Hard of hearing children
- Telecommunications Relay Service
- change BT to: Hard of hearing people–Means of communication
Adding for tracking progress of this heading – from List 2307
Deaf persons; Hard-of-hearing persons
These proposals were withdrawn from the list and will appear on a future list together with
proposals to change all related headings.
https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/cpsoed/ptcp-2307.pdf
We should keep on eye on these and also propose these changes to LCDGT.
Thanks Nicole! FYI, the Medical Funnel recently collaborated with LC to propose revisions (which I’ve now detailed above). The whole batch will be scheduled for discussion on the March 2024 list.
Hello, All! I see that LC finally changed “Hearing impaired” to “Hard of hearing people” (ARN:2061618). What I don’t see is the term “hearing impaired” being replaced in the corresponding genre headings, such as “Video recordings for the hearing impaired” (655: ARN:8866703. This is a definite problem in libraries that used a lot of genre headings in their catalogs (public libraries, especially).
What can we do to lobby for this change?
Thanks for any and all suggestions!