[StatesEnemy]

Well excccuuuuuuuuse ME!

I thought that perhaps that was some weird, politically correct spelling - like womyn.

[Nataku X]

I think Fearless Flyer took your answer to be much more negatively sarcastic than it actually was. But, no, it's not a PC spelling.

If you go to a Deaf event you can be reasonably sure that the activities will be centered around visual games and sign language. However not all people who are deaf know sign language, etc. Even then, sign language grammar ranges from being word-for-word precise English to a grammar optimized to visual sign language (I think of it as big-D Deaf grammar). FF could also be right with her metaphor.

So I guess to clarify you could say that Deaf refers to the community and cultural characterstics associated with it (such as the optimized grammar I mentioned above). And deaf refers to the state of not being able to hear... a hard distinction to make, to be sure, but it is NOT "PC". In fact the PC term is to say "audiologically impaired" or some such bull.

[cgk]

Or grrrrrl

Ugh.