Why We Capitalize Deaf, and Other Language That Matters

Organisations that serve the Deaf community get the language wrong constantly, usually with the best intentions. Well-meaning copy full of the wrong words communicates something the writer never meant: that nobody Deaf was in the room.

Here is what to get right, and why each thing matters.

Capital D Deaf

The most visible convention, and the one most often missed.

Lowercase "deaf" describes an audiological fact, the degree to which a person hears.

Capital "Deaf" refers to a cultural and linguistic community: people who share a language, in the US usually American Sign Language, along with cultural norms, history, institutions, art, humour, and a strong sense of collective identity.

The distinction mirrors how we handle other cultural identities. We capitalise the names of cultures and languages. Deaf culture and its language earn the same treatment.

Deafness is not a disability, it is a fact about a person

This one surprises hearing people, and it is the most important idea on this page.

Within Deaf culture, being Deaf is widely understood not as a deficiency but simply as a characteristic, in the way that being tall or being left-handed or speaking Portuguese is a characteristic. Deaf people are frequently proud of being Deaf and proud to belong to Deaf culture and the Deaf community.

That framing has a practical consequence for how you describe the problem you are solving. Consider the difference:

• "Deaf people suffer from an inability to communicate."
• "Most hearing people cannot sign, so communication breaks down between them."

The first locates the deficiency in the Deaf person. The second describes what is actually happening: two people, two languages, and only one of them being accommodated by the world around them.

This is not softer language for the same idea. It is a more accurate description. A Deaf ASL user in a room full of ASL users has no communication problem whatsoever. The barrier is a property of the situation, not of the person.

ASL is a complete language

American Sign Language is a full natural language with its own grammar and syntax. It is not a signed version of English, not simplified English, and not a system of gestures.

Avoid describing signing as "gesturing" or "using hand signals". Avoid implying that ASL is a workaround for something missing. People do not "use ASL because they cannot speak". They use ASL because it is their language.

Phrases to retire

• "Hearing impaired" is widely disliked in the Deaf community. It centres impairment and defines people by what is deemed absent. Use Deaf, or deaf and hard of hearing.
• "Deaf and dumb", "deaf mute" are archaic and offensive. There is no situation in which these are appropriate.
• "Suffers from deafness", "afflicted with" apply the vocabulary of illness to an identity.
• "Confined to silence", "trapped in a world of silence" are journalistic clichés that Deaf people find alienating and inaccurate.
• "Gives a voice to the voiceless" is the one charities reach for most, and it is worth examining. Deaf people are not voiceless. They have a language and plenty to say. What is missing is other people's ability to receive it.

Nothing about us without us

The language is downstream of something more fundamental: whether Deaf people are involved in the work at all.

Technology for Deaf people has a long history of being built by hearing people who did not consult Deaf people, launched to applause from hearing audiences, and quietly abandoned when Deaf users found it did not work. Signing avatars that no fluent signer could read. Gloves promising to translate sign language while capturing only handshape, ignoring the face, body and space that carry much of the grammar.

The failure in those cases is rarely a shortage of goodwill. It is a shortage of Deaf people in the design process.

How we hold ourselves to this

We would rather publish our commitments than claim good intentions, so these are written on our site:

• Deaf is always capitalised.
• Deafness is never described as a disability. It is a simple fact about a person.
• ASL is described as a complete language, never as a workaround.
• We do not use pity framing. Nobody here is a victim to be rescued.
• Deaf people review our messaging. Nothing goes out under the DeafAI name without review for language that would be offensive to Deaf people.
• We build with, not for. Deaf users test the app, guide the roadmap, and sit on our board.

That last point is structural rather than editorial, and it is the one that makes the rest credible. A Deaf director on the board of a company building Deaf technology is not symbolism. It is the mechanism by which the other commitments stay honest.

If you get it wrong

You will, occasionally. So will we.

The useful response is unremarkable: correct it, and carry on. Deaf people are generally not looking for perfect hearing allies. They are looking for people who listen when told something, change what they are doing, and do not need to be told twice.

If you spot language on this site that misses the mark, please tell us. We would genuinely rather know.

Frequently asked questions