Deaf people don’t hear like other people do. Some deaf people can’t hear at all. Some deaf people can hear a little bit.

Some children are born deaf. Other people become deaf as children or as adults.

What types of deafness are there?
There are three types of deafness:

• Sensori-neural - problems in the inner ear
• Conductive - problems in the outer and middle ear
• Mixed

What causes deafness?
There are a variety of causes of deafness, including:

• Genetics - various genes can cause deafness. People with genetic deafness can have hearing parents and/or hearing children.
• Illness - for example, meningitis.
• Maternal illness - if a woman catches certain diseases, such as rubella (German Measles) while pregnant, her child could be born deaf.
• Trauma - including physical accidents as well as overexposure to loud noise.
• Age - many older people have some degree of hearing loss.

Are there different degrees of hearing loss?
Yes. There are several descriptions for different degrees of hearing losses. The most commonly used ones are:

• Partial hearing loss: This is a mild loss and most people use hearing aids to amplify sounds and rely on these aids for everyday communication.
• Severe hearing loss: In this case, most people will find they naturally use visual cues including lip-reading for spoken communication and often they will use hearing aids as well. Some people find sign language more effective and use this for everyday communication. Depending on the frequency and type of hearing loss, some people learn to hear sounds again with aids and use the voice telephone.
• Total/Profound hearing loss: This is where people hear nothing or the remaining/residual hearing is minimal. Often this means that the residual hearing is not enough to hear speech, particularly as speech uses a very small part of the range of sounds a human can potentially hear.  Even the most powerful hearing aids will not assist in hearing speech with complete clarity.  Many people in this group only use hearing aids for detecting environmental sounds.

Levels of hearing loss are assessed by conducting an Audiogram. Deaf Education Network’s Basic (Community) Auslan courses provide numerous handouts containing summaries of the latest information about Auslan and Deafness awareness. To find out more about Audiograms, click here

Do all people with a profound hearing loss use sign language?
People from any of the above groups may/may not use Auslan depending on their involvement and identification with the Deaf Community. This is an individual choice.

There are many aids and equipment that will help a person with a hearing loss in everyday life. Talk to your audiologist, consumer groups, friends and Deaf specific agencies to find out what is best for you. You may be interested in such things as closed captions and infrared headphones for television viewing, TTY or volume control phones for telecommunications, vibrating and visual alert alarm clocks, vibrating alarm watches and visual alert baby cry alarms.

There is no direct subsidy provided by government for these pieces of equipment; some items such as televisions with Teletext function do have part tax exemption (see Australian Hearing for an exemption application form) and some telecommunication companies, such as Telstra and Optus, have special programs to assist people who are deaf or hard of hearing with telecommunications equipment.

I am losing my hearing, where can I go for advice and information?
In most cases, people contact their local General Practitioner (GP) for confirmation when they notice their hearing is deteriorating. A GP can refer you to an audiologist who will test your hearing. The next step is to determine if any assistive listening devices, such as hearing aids, are suitable. If so, the aids must be professionally fitted.

Some people who lose their hearing later in life choose to learn Auslan, although most Auslan users are those who have grown up with a hearing loss. If you are interested in learning Auslan (Australian Sign Language), click here. For more information about Auslan, click here.

Where can I go for more information?
The organisations that provide hearing assessments and/or advice on living with a hearing loss are:

• Australian Hearing
• Better Hearing Australia
• Self Help for Hard of Hearing (Shhh Australia)
• Australian Communication Exchange (ACE)
• Media Access Australia

To find out more about the different meanings of the terms Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing and hearing impaired, click here.