Actually, I think there is a part of this that is being overlooked. The statement "I came back to WoW".
What it seemed happened was that he had taken a break from World Of Warcraft, and when he became deaf he decided to return to the game. This means he showed up after a noteworthy absence (where he stopped playing) to a very competitive group of people, and then wanted to start raiding again where he'd be a serious inconveinence at best, and an outright liability at worst.
Not being able to talk on vent is one thing, not being able to hear vent and listen to the raid leader is something else entirely as even if you know the fight, being able to react quickly to instructions is a big deal. Even if typing during a fight like that wasn't potentially catastrophic (I honestly think most raid bosses are designed with the assumption people will have voice chat and certain types of mods nowadays), it's a pain in the nuts to have to type stuff out that you just said for the sake of one person.
Consider that even in amateur and semi-pro sports where there is little at stake, someone with an injury might also be kicked form a team even if everyone is their buddy. You blow a knee out, and it'st too bad, but that doesn't mean they are still going to let you play.
The biggest factor here though is simply that he quit and decided to come back though. Or so it would seem to me. All the above reasons aside, if he was playing regularly and this happened, chances are allowances would have been made. On the other hand on top of of everything consider that he has been replaced as part of the regular raid line up. What this means is that adding him in means that someone is going to wind up having to sit so he can raid. Returns of old friends can be handled in such situations, but when you add the disabillity issue and the inconveience, it's easy to see where they are coming from.
On top of all of this, and admittedly the most minor factor, is that people DO dull after extended absences, not to mention needing new gear. Jumping right into raiding effectively just doesn't happen. What's more Cataclysm in paticular is brutal in this regard since they have hardwired gear requirements. To enter heroics for example the game itself won't let you in the door if you don't have an overall gear level of 329 or better (which is now listed on your sheet). Incidently this means that a group of overpowered guildies can't drag an undergeared buddy through heroics, or geat them up in the raids themselves until they become more useful, things have to be done in sequence. What's more Blizzard decided to take the attitude that "heroics are serious business now" and the difficulty has spiked quite a bit beyond the basic level. I suspect this is because Cataclysm included far less high level content than previous expansions, and only 5 levels, so Blizzard wants to drag things out a bit more with what they have before their next expansion. It's a big factor now as well.
As far as the "it's a game" comments, this is true, but games are intended to be fun, and understand this guy might not be fun to play with for the other 9 to 24 people (or more if people would have to sit) involved.
I'll also be blunt in saying that there is probably more to this than we're hearing. Most guilds probably wouldn't have kicked him for this, but they probably would have put him on non-raiding status even if they are generally a raiders only guild, a social thing. In a practical sense (intent aside) this means he'd probably wind up doing dungeons with people between raids when they were bored and very slowly gear up. Eventually the time would come when they would be short on people, and despite everything the other 9 to 24 guys online would decide that giving him a shot or dealing with the frustration is better than not raiding. With time he'd get a chance to prove himself, and if it worked out, chances are he'd be right back to raiding.
My immediate guess is that when he showed up he expected allowances to be made due to long term involvement, and everyone to drop everything to get him back into raiding on what amount to his terms. When this wasn't going to happen he made a stink about it, and wound up getting kicked. The fact that he had friends in the guild probably meant that his prescence with that attitude would lead to drama. I've seen things like this happen over the years for situations like this even without the deafness issue.
Don't assume I have no sympathy for the guy (I have some serious issues IRL myself which I have mentioned, and have difficulty doing a lot of things). I am just saying that what happened here is actually quite understandable and probably not unreasonable. Put yourself in the shoes of the other people in the guild, or the guild leader who has to decide what's best for the other people in the guild. This might not be a nice thing on any level, but sometimes the guy(s) in charge have to make hard desicians, and this is why being the leader sucks. If this guy had all these friends in this guild as he says, I doubt this was an easy desician from the end of the leadership, or done all that callously.
