I have never met a deaf cyclist. But that should not stop you.

Although I can hear the traffic approach from behind most times, there are times that I do not hear the traffic with the wind noise. And if the traffic is going slow because they did not want to try to pass me where vision was obstructed, there were times that I was suddenly surprised that a car was passing me slowly.

Some of the hybrids, especially Prius cars can be very very quiet, cyclists can't rely on hearing as much as they used to when the hybrids were not around. I have several friends that work on highway construction, they hate the newer hybrids because they can be hard to hear.

There are many options for good rear view mirrors. I wear a visor on my helmet, I use a Third Eye brand mirror that clamps onto the visor. The lighting for my photo is terrible, but you can see my mirror quite well. With a mirror on my helmet like this, I do not have to move my head very much at all to make a quick glace to the rear. There are many other good helmet mounted mirrors or mirrors that mount to sunglasses.