Deafness is the inability to hear to the extent that precludes the understanding of speech through the ear alone, with or without a hearing instrument.The deaf may, however, rely on Signed English to make themselves understood. This manually coded system is used to represent spoken English and is considered to be the least complicated of the manual systems. Developed in 1973 at Gallaudet University, signed English consists of 3,500 sign words that much match the meaning of separate words in English, including their various meanings. Sign words do not represent any sounds or spellings, and, they may be used with any of 14 sound makers (which are also gestured) that represent the most frequent grammatical changes (singular, plural, possessive, etc.

One picture is worth a thousand words, they say, and this beautiful, expressive language is but one tool the hearing impaired have to further communicate with the hearing world.

P.S. American Sign Language, often called the language of deaf people, is sometimes used in combination with Signed English.