Deafness and hearing loss - a global health problem

Throughout history deafness and hearing loss have been widely misunderstood. Issues concerning the education of deaf children, appropriate means of communication and remediation of deafness have consistently been a source of heated debate between the professionals working with the deaf and the deaf people themselves. The purpose of this paper is an attempt to illustrate these issues and to impart to the reader the realization that a diagnosis of "deaf" means so much more than the inability to hear and understand speech and other sounds. It is a way of life that cannot be ignored (Jacobs, A Deaf Adult Speaks Out, Harvard University Press, Washington, DC, 1994).