They may describe themselves in terms of their appearance, as tall, short, thin, fat, or dumpy, male or female, as members of a racial, ethnic, religious, national, regional, or linguistic group, as members of a profession or trade, as homemakers or retirees or freelancers or between jobs, possibly even in terms of a disability or chronic illness that defines or limits their lives in some way. But they very, very rarely define themselves as “hearing people.”