The question "What's it like to be deaf?" has engendered debates on whether deafness should be considered a "loss," a "gain," or both. It is doubtful that many scholars would agree that an adequate answer entails only a depiction of the degree of hearing acuity or loss, perhaps in conjunction with age at onset, thresholds for speech (i.e., for a spoken language), and hearing reception and comprehension. This might be a reasonable place to start, but it might not be the place to stop. Nevertheless, considering deafness as a hearing disability and focusing on attempts to remedy it through the development of spoken language(s) and literacy (or literacies) of mainstream society is deemed an appropriate route by a number of researchers, educators, and parents/caregivers. There are scholars who would argue that this is the wrong place to start. Rather, the focus should be on the intertwinement of Deaf identity, signed language, and culture, which highlights the sociological or sociocultural dimensions (e.g., beliefs, mores, attitudes) of individuals in groups.