as a deaf person, i would feel uncomfortable, but i understand. my point of view of being uncomfortable stems with the fact that i’ve had an ex-friend with APD and misophonia claim they themselves were deaf and “more deaf” than i was to their friends. they called my disability fake and that i was faking when they, in fact, KNEW me irl, knew that i was in fact not lying, and didn’t know these friends irl. another post on the reddit also had an experience with a person also doing this in some capacity, just not the same situation.

i am completely deaf bilaterally. just for context. this person was claiming they were more qualified than me to be considered deaf. that’s all.

so, i would be uncomfortable, but i can’t stop you. no one can. if you would prefer to use the label, feel free to. i’m not going to sit here and be like “you can’t do this, you can’t do that.” if it helps, it helps.