Heather Whitestone's Contribution To Deaf History

     A cochlear implant is an electronic device that restores hearing for people anywhere from hard of hearing to the profoundly deaf. The cochlear implant is surgically implanted under the skin behind the ear. The surgeon puts the electrode array inside the inner ear and than inside the cochlea. The implant works by a device outside the ear, which rests on the skin behind the ear. It is held upright by a magnet and is also connected by a lead to a sound professor.

In this 2 hours of deaf history I found it very interesting. It taught me a lot about deaf history. In those 2 hours I found out about how people would treated deaf people. Deaf people were treated very badly, they were treated like something was wrong with them. There is nothing wrong with them even though they can’t hear, nothing is wrong with them they are still humans with feeling. Deaf people were told that they had to go to a school so they could learn to talk (oral schools). In those they were not aloud to sign or use hands in class. They would try and teach deaf kids how to speak by putting their hands on the teacher's throat to feel the vibrations of when the teacher speak and the kids had to copy that feeling on themselves and when

Darrow’s article was easy to read and focused on the importance of how to teach deaf students. Although I enjoyed reading it, the writer lacked to inform how students with hearing losses can differ and how this can

Cochlear Implants are an object that is very controversial in the deaf community. “A Cochlear Implants is a device that provdes direct electrical stimulation to the auditory (hearing) nerve in the inner ear.” (“Cochlear Implants”) Cochlear Implants bypass the damaged hair cells, and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Depending on when the Cochlear Implant is implanted it allows people to hear sounds, and sometimes even their own voice. While it does not cure hearing loss or deafness, it does allow people to hear. On more technical terms a Cochlear Implant includes parts like a microphone, speech processor, and a transmitter which each play a different part in the Cochlear Implant. The microphone picks up sounds, sends them to the speech processer, and then the speech processor analyzes and digitized the sound signal, thus sending them to a transmitter worn on the head. The debate of whether or not Cochlear Implants are right in the deaf community is one that has been going on for years. People believe having Cochlear Implants are a good thing, because they allow deaf people to communicate with hearing people, it allows people who are not helped by conventional hearing aids to be helped, and it creates new possibilities for deaf people. However there are also people that argue that having a Cochlear Implant is a bad thing, because it proposes the idea that deaf people need to be fixed, it can give deaf people false hope, and it proposes the idea that deaf people have a

In the autobiography Deaf Again, Mark Drolsbaugh writes about his life being born hearing, growing up hard of hearing, to eventually becoming deaf. By writing this book, he helps many people view from his perspective on what it is like for someone to struggle trying to fit in the hearing society. Through his early years, his eyes were closed to the deaf world, being only taught how to live in a hearing world. Not only does the book cover his personal involvement, but it covers some important moments in deaf history. It really is eye-opening because instead of just learning about deaf culture and deaf history, someone who lived through it is actually explaining their experiences.

“While with hearing people, she was expected to adapt to their behaviors and to their ways of talking. She realized that their view of her as handicapped could not be overcome; it was too deeply rooted in their culture” (Padden 154). In quote Tom Humphries is talking about Carol Padden in a very influential time of her life. Being a part of a subculture like the deaf community must be enriching but also have interesting effects on how people within the subculture see “normal” individuals. Deaf people can be seen throughout history, the best historical information found was in The Deaf Community in America: History in the Making, written by Melvia M. Nomeland and Ronald E. Nomeland. They provide many details about the history of deaf individuals like, “The first mention of a deaf person, Chushim, is noted in the Torah” (Nomeland 6). The Torah is the religious text of the Jewish people, and was written around 1312 B.C. Education for deaf people took over 3,000 years for there to be public education for the Deaf. “The London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, another school, was opened at Kent Road in 1792 to accept deaf children from poor families” (Nomeland 17).

54.Cochlear Implant: device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through

Heather Whitestone was born February 24, 1973 in Dothan, Alabama. She was the youngest daughter of Daphne and Bill Whitestone. Heather has two sisters, Melissa and Stacey. She was able to hear and speak until she became sick at eighteen months. Her family were unaware of her deafness. They found out that Heather was deaf during Christmas of 1974. Her mother happened to drop several pots and pans in the kitchen that scared the family members who heard the loud crash. But, Heather who was playing by the Christmas tree did not react at all to the loud commotion. Her mother took a spoon and a pot and banged them directly behind Heather’s back who still did not show any reaction to the noise.

In today’s society deaf culture is not considered to be a population of animal like humans, but that was not the case before the 1960’s. In the past people who were deaf did not live normal lives, they were in a way the outcasts. If you were born deaf before the 1960’s there were not many options for the deaf, often times they were looked down upon and thought of as glorified animals. Because they were viewed as animals they were not accepted into the mainstream schools, even though there were a few institutes for the deaf, a lot of times families could not afford

It was not a surprise that she wanted to go with a career that would deal with the deaf community, I'm not saying that in a bad way. I'm just glad that she wanted to help out the deaf community, we need many people like her especially with the background like that. I think it definitely gave her the advantage of working in a field like that because she already had the wisdom and experience from growing up in a deaf

program: During Heathers year as Miss America she introduced something called S.T.A.R.S. program: “Success Through Action and Realization of your Dreams.” It has five points which consists of having: positive attitude, belief in a dream, the willingness to work hard, facing obstacles, and building a strong support team. “She traveled to every corner of the country speaking to corporations, non-profit organizations, churches and government, including the FBI and CIA.”-https://www.signingsavvy.com/blog/158/Living+Loud%3A+Heather+Whitestone-+First+Deaf+Miss+America. Heather also served as an executive member on the President’s committee on Employment of People Disabilities. Not only did Heather create the S.T.A.R.S program, serve on the President's committee and do much more but she also wrote four books: Listening with My Heart, Believing the Promise, Let God Surprise You, and Heavenly Crowns. These books not only helped Heather explain her life story but helped her go through hard obstacles she faced as a Deaf woman in

I enjoyed learning about Heather’s background, education, and career goals before and after her reign as Miss America. Heather Whitestone inspired me because she reached out to several people and motivated them to work hard and focus on their dreams. I can only imagine the amount of people in both the hearing world and Deaf Community that looked up to Heather and praised her for her successes. Even though Whitestone joined the hearing world later in life, I believe she used her cochlear implant to associate herself with deaf and hearing individuals and create relationships and a joint understanding with members of each

Cochlear implants consists of three external parts: a microphone, a speech processor, and a transmitter. The internal parts include: a receiver and stimulator and an array of up to 22 electrodes, depending on how much amplification is needed. Cochlear implants work by bypassing all the damaged parts of the ear to directly stimulate the tiny hair cells on the cochlea that direct sound frequencies to the auditory nerve. (ASHA 2013)

Before Mandy was beginning to get back into the talent of singing without hearing, she met her music professor by the name of Cynthia Vaughn, who gave Mandy the inspiration to get back into her career. Mandy still had the talent and would nail the keys and tones of her voice when she was hard of hearing. She was all over the news because of her “disability” she called it, which I do not believe is a good term for being Deaf. Mandy signed this quote to an interpreter “I understand that my story opens doors and gives people hope, but for me it's still a wound that I am working to heal. I don't want to be known for my disability.”.

A cochlear implant uses an electronic device that is surgically implanted within your ear, particularly its canal. It is performed if you suffer from severe or worsening hearing loss. Essentially, the implant replaces the function of your inner ear’s hair cells, which help you register sound vibrations and when damaged, are not able to function. While a cochlear implant will not give you back 100% of your hearing ability, it is enough to allow you to hear and understand most sounds and communicate better with other people.