How deaf do you have to be to be LEGALLY deaf?

Unlike being ‘legally blind’, there really isn’t a legal term for deafness. There is, however, a medical term for deafness. A person is deemed to be ‘deaf’, when they have a profound hearing loss. A profound hearing loss is defined as a hearing loss of 90dB or more. You can have different types of hearing loss within the frequencies, for example, you might have a moderate sloping to profound. This means that you have a moderate hearing loss in your low frequencies, but you are completely deaf in your high. Hope this helps!

Like the previous poster said, oddly, there is no legality for Deaf/ness.

Deaf doesn’t always focus completely on how loud something is or isn’t. You could have a 90 db loss and with hearing aids understand everything someone has said.

OR you could have a lower db of say 60db, but not be able to hear words CLEARLY, no matter how loud you turn up your hearing aids.

It’s the functions combo of not being able to hear at a normal range, PLUS not being able to detect or understand normal speech sounds.

I have lots of friends with similar db loss levels, but they ALL hear differently!

Anyone who has hearing problem has card that says so …for in case you get pulled over or other discounts or to prove to people who dont belive IE somewhere you may need an interpriter or hand held device!

Any loss is major impact.

anything over about 30 dB your have an Impairment… however there is no cut off…. why do you ask.

Can you hear me now