The total silence of profound deafness is a state of being that is ‘invisible’ to the hearing popula-tion. Collectively, the Deaf constitute a global community in our midst: an ‘invisible city’ which surrounds us. Italians have been increasingly exposed to the worldwide spread of English since the Second World War. Therefore, it is plausible that the English language comes into contact with the Italian deaf people too. The author conducted a questionnaire type investigation among pro-foundly deaf Italian individuals in 2005 to discover the type and extent of contact between the English language and their community. This present paper deals with the aims, format and results of the survey, showing its significance within an intercultural and linguistic framework.
