Ableism is defined as “the all-encompassing discrimination and exclusion of people living with disabilities” (Adams et al, 461). However, to determine whether you are experiencing ableism, you must first know what constitutes a disability. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, someone is disabled if they have a substantial handicap that prevents them from performing important life actions, such as “walking, seeing, hearing, learning, speaking, breathing, standing, lifting, or caring of himself." themselves” (Adams et al, 461). Disabled people constitute the largest minority in the world, with a population estimated at 650 million people (Adams et al, 461). Of these 650 million people, 360 million suffer from some sort of disabling hearing loss, or more than 5% of the world's population ("Deafness and Hearing Loss"). Specifically defined, a person with sufficient hearing loss to be considered disabled has "hearing loss greater than 40 dB in the better ear in adults and hearing loss greater than 30 dB in the better ear in children" (" Deafness and hearing loss"). Anyone who does not meet these standards can then automatically be considered hearing or deaf. In the United States, the total prison population is estimated at 2.4 million (Klein and Soltas). Of this prison population, it is impossible to know how many people are deaf or hard of hearing because prisons tend not to track this information. However, experts say the experience of being hard of hearing in prison is not a unique situation (Ridgeway). In one study, Katrina Miller conducted research on the Texas prison population and found that 30% of prisoners in Texas qualified as deaf (Ridgeway). Assuming this is… half of a paper… on the legal rights of deaf people, in general, and hopes to earn a law degree so that he can eventually work on behalf of these populations bringing cases to court on issues like this one. Conclusion Hearing-impaired prisoners, in a sense, constitute a vulnerable group within another vulnerable group. Not only are they prisoners but they are also disabled, which effectively makes them the subordinates of the subordinates. However, for now, very little notice or work has been done to try to resolve this group's circumstances. Helping this group to access legal treatment and to some extent overcome the language barrier will be helpful for them within prison. It would also allow them to get more education and counseling within prison, resulting in earlier releases. It would also help better prepare inmates for returning to life outside prison.