how to say “hard of hearing” in Hebrew
having trouble seeing the print?
כְּבַד שְׁמִיעָה, קְשֶׁה שְׁמִיעָה
Last week I posted about the Hebrew words for blind, deaf and mute. Responding to the post, my student and friend Ruti asked whether the terms in Hebrew provoke the same politically-correct sensitivity as they do in English.
My answer is that it depends who you’re talking to, as it does in the States. For those more sensitive, here are some politically-correct terms:
לְקוּי…
לְקוּי, לְקוּיַת רְאִיָּה – visually-impaired (masculine and feminine, respectively, as below)
לקוי, לקויית שְׁמִיעָה – hearing-impaired
לקוי, לקוית דִבּוּר – speaking-impaired
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| volunteers at AACI’s Library for the Visually Impaired and Homebound |
כְּבַד…
כְּבַד, כִּבְדַת ראיה – hard (literally, heavy) of sight
כבד, כבדת שמיעה – hard of hearing
כבד, כבדת דבור – hard of speaking
כבד, כבדת לָשוֹן – one who stutters (derived from Moses)
For the latter group, one can substitute כבד with קְשֶׁה and כבדת with קְשַׁת , to mean literally hard of…
and כבדת with קְשַׁת , to mean literally hard of…For example:
יֵשׁ סִפְרִיּוֹת מְיֻחָדוֹת עֲבוּר אֲנָשִׁים קְשֵׁי רְאִיָּה.
There are special libraries for people hard of sight.
