Really? That's the exact opposite of what I've heard from every one of my deaf friends and classmates at college.
Yes really since my wife is still classified as Deaf/Hard of Hearing on government forms that is a community thing bro.
I go to RIT which is a sister college of NTID( National Technical Institute for the Deaf ), and all of them speak a lot of about how they are both "deaf" and "Deaf." They distinguish between the two kind of like the distinction between church and Church, deaf just being the fact they can't hear, but being "Deaf" meaning they are a part of the deaf culture.
You can be Deaf without being a part of the Community. The differences in Distinguishing between this and that happen by city, state, region and even coast. So some of the rules you have learned for where you are may not apply where I am and vice versa. The same can be said of Sign Language slang, it is no different than speech in that regard. If you go to New York slang words are different than in California.
I only ever hear them use hard of hearing when referring to someone who can hear, but not very well.
As far as the Deaf Community/Culture: She was not born deaf but rather contracted Spinal Meningitis as a child which in turn burned out her auditory centers due to the high fevers she had. Since 2 1/2 she has been without 85% of Hearing in her Left ear and 90% in her Right. Even with hearing aids my wife is unable to distinguish speech. She can only hear very high/low pitch sounds like a Fog Horn or Giant Bass Drum. This is why I said what I said Titan.
