Deaf vs. deaf
An interesting distinction:
This comes from a fascinating article on "Deafness and the User Experience" over on A List Apart. Well worth a read...Little “d” deaf describes anyone who is deaf or hard of hearing (HOH) but does not identify with the Deaf community. The Deaf community uses big “D” Deaf to distinguish themselves as being culturally Deaf.
The Deaf community is considered to be a linguistic and cultural minority group, similar to an ethnic community. Just as we capitalise the names of ethnic communities and cultures (e.g., Italian, Jewish) we capitalise the name of the Deaf community and culture. Since not all people who are physically deaf use Auslan and identify with the Deaf community, the d in deaf is not capitalized when we are referring to all deaf people or the physical condition of not hearing.
The Australian Deaf Community is a network of people who share a language and culture and a history of common experiences.
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