noun
hearing-impaired person; deaf person
A formal, neutral term for a person with hearing loss. In everyday conversation, 耳の不自由な人 or 耳が聞こえない人 may be used to sound softer.
聴覚障害者のための情報保障が重要だ。
Information accessibility for hearing-impaired people is important.
彼は聴覚障害者だが、手話で自由に会話ができる。
He is deaf, but he can communicate freely in sign language.
難聴者 specifically refers to a person with partial hearing loss (hard of hearing), while 聴覚障害者 is a broader term that includes both deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.
ろう者 refers to culturally Deaf people who use sign language as their primary language, whereas 聴覚障害者 is a medical/administrative term covering all degrees of hearing impairment.
Compound of 聴覚 (hearing) + 障害 (impairment) + 者 (person). A modern administrative and medical term.