You use -impaired in adjectives where you are describing someone with a particular disability. For example, someone who is hearing-impaired has a disability affecting their hearing, and someone who is visually-impaired has a disability affecting their sight.
More than 1 in 20 of the population is hearing-impaired to some extent.
The hearing-impaired or the visually-impaired are people with disabilities affecting their hearing or sight. This use could causeoffence.
...giving a voice to the speech-impaired.
impaired in British English
(ɪmˈpɛəd)
adjective
reduced or weakened in strength, quality, etc
His memory is impaired.
Examples of 'impaired' in a sentence
impaired
Also considerable are the reduced efficiency of the immune system, and impaired memory and intellectual capabilities.
Holford, Patrick The Family Nutrition Workbook (1988)
For example, too many visually and hearing impaired people are unnecessarily unemployed.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
For the over-60s, loneliness can lead to an impaired quality of life and increase death by almost ten per cent.
The Sun (2012)
Definition of '-impaired'
(adjective)
The blast left him with permanently impaired vision.
Synonyms
damaged
flawed
the unique beauty of a flawed object
faulty
They will repair the faulty equipment.
defective
Retailers can return defective merchandise.
imperfect
We live in an imperfect world.
unsound
The thinking is muddled and fundamentally unsound.