I can attest to that as I am myself deaf in my right ear, and partly deaf in my left ear. There was a period in my youth when I was evaluated at length by by doctors who thought I may have a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome over and above my hearing difficulty, however, the diagnosis did not prove conclusive with enough evidence. I suspect at times they may have been right, but, the circumstances and lack of clinical research at the time was not enough (bare in mind I live in a so called "third world" country). As for specialised services, my primary school sent me in for a series of test, of which I passed with flying colours and was able to cope with regular schooling with relatively no difficulty. I am thankful for that, I probably would not be where I am were I sent to a specialised school. That being said, there was many occasions when I have been treated as a "retard", simply because I could not hear what was being said. In most cases I have to bring forth my hearing difficulty, to explain why I could not hear, and in most cases people take that into consideration when communicating with me without being overly sensitive. I've also had to undergo speech therapy, which really helped me a bit. Over the years I found ways to disguise my disability with the effect that most people I meet these days are absolutely clueless they are dealing with a deaf person :)
