The Human Condition Through Innovation

(n.d.). Part one: the deaf community and cochlear implants my child can have more choices: reflections of deaf mothers on cochlear implants for their children. Cochlear Implants: Evolving Perspectives. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/excerpts/CIEP.html

The documentary Sound and Fury by Roger Weisberg takes its views inside the rarely seen world of deaf culture for the family struggle over controversial medical technology known as the cochlear

Some deaf people also believe that their condition is both natural and cultural and in no sense medical. Therefore, implants only constitute acts of genocide, endangering the continuation of the Deaf community (Edwards). Deaf people view those who agree to the surgery and get the implants as artificial deaf persons, as opposed to those who choose to be original deaf persons (893). Even though hearing persons try to cure those who are hard of hearing, most deaf individuals consider that they do not need their help, as they do not have any disability, and simply have a different language and culture than the rest of their community.

The advent of new technologies such as the cochlear implant will not ultimately eradicate Deaf culture. The Deaf community is too close-knit to become torn apart. Not everyone has access to these new technologies because they are not eligible for them or the price is not right for their low budgets. Similarly, not everyone will be successful with the cochlear implant and most will return to Deaf culture for the rest of their lives. However, for those who are successful, they can still be a part of Deaf culture if they are bilingual and have adequate access to the Deaf community and its members. Knowledge is power and ASL education is spreading throughout high schools and universities all over the United States. These are several factors that

The Deaf President Now movement and Gallaudet University protest did not only achieve its aims, this revolution brought unity to the Deaf Community and awareness to the general public. This revolution grew into a civil rights movement, consequently enacting legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and The Telecommunications Accessibility Enhancement Act of 1988, to benefit deaf citizens. The events of February- March 1988 are still a great source of pride and enlightenment that are still nostalgically looked back on by this generation of deaf citizens. The Deaf community can be described as being a relatively private community, consisting of many people with various ranges of hearing loss. Like any culture, the deaf have their own community, culture, language, and essentially a separate world from the hearing majority. However, it has only been in the last few decades that there has been awareness and acceptance of this culture, nevertheless there is not full acceptance and understanding of this community and deafness in

Deafness is a condition spread around the whole world. In America alone over 30 million Americans have significant, chronic hearing loss and almost 2 million people that are completely deaf. And even though there are many people that are deaf, many hearing people know little to nothing about how deaf people live. Delving into the silent world reveals a great deal about the deaf community, deaf culture, and the largest controversy in the Deaf community.

Those that oppose cochlear implants argue mostly from a minority standpoint. The deaf community feels that as the minority, the hearing majority is threatening their way of life. “The deaf community is a culture. They’re much like the culture of the Hispanic community, for example, where parents who are Hispanics, or shall we say deaf, would naturally want to retain their family ties by their common language, their primary language, which is

The Deaf community and their culture is a part of the oppressed population group. There are many limitations of being deaf in a hearing world. The Deaf community has been victims of isolation and oppression for many years. Historically the hearing culture has put Deaf individuals in social categories such as “disable” and “outsiders” (Pinquart, Pfeiffer, 2014). However, many years of being deaf has been viewed as having an undesirable condition.

Kleinman’s questions are more applicable to deaf people in general who are more in favor of and interested in improving their hearing through hearing aids, cochlear implant, and/or speech therapy. Therefore, they would be more likely to answer his questions even though they do contain the term sickness as these people are more to likely view deafness as a disability compared to people who strictly identify themselves as a part of Deaf culture. Also, Kleinman’s questions can be especially applicable for hearing parents with deaf children who want to raise them as hearing children. According to the ninety percent rule, ninety-percent of deaf children have hearing parents and ninety-percent of hearing children have deaf parents (Sparrow 141). Since hearing parents want to raise their children in the hearing culture, it is ideal for them to be able to utilize Kleinman’s eight questions as a means of providing a way for their deaf children to improve their hearing through hearing aids, cochlear implants, and/or speech

The American Medical Association, which happens to be the largest association of physicians, stated, “The main concern of the cochlear implant supporters is for the deaf child to have access to the mainstream, or ‘normal’ hearing world”. In fact, the AMA continues to state that the benefits from a cochlear implantation ranges from a person being able to detect sounds to understanding lip reading. It’s understandable how important it is for hearing parents to be able to communicate with their deaf child because being deaf is a communication barrier. Hearing parents would be giving their deaf child unlimited opportunities throughout their life to achieve equal amounts of success as the next hearing person. However, trying to normalize a child against can be increasingly more harmful to the child’s physical, mental, and intellectual stability. Rather than helping, most parents in these cases can cause their child to be less accepting and comfortable about being deaf instead of demonstrating to them that being deaf does not mean you can not have a normal life. Besides hearing parents can find a way to close the communication barrier with their child by learning sign

In the article should the Deaf Be Considered an Ethnic Group? By Susan Seligson the author examines the attitudes towards the deaf community and their classification in society. The author claims that the deaf community has major hurdles to over come to become a ethnic group including the medical industries affection toward technology like cochlear implants which are usually implanted into infants who may have hearing difficulties with doctors medical advice. Seligson maintains the belief in which these implants are actually harmful to children because they can only marginally hear which effects the socialization of the child because the child has to try to hear with these implants opposed to learning ASL and being a part of a community. The

The People of the Deaf community believe that implants will destroy their culture, while many other believe Cochlears give a new meaning to the word “Deaf”. Cochlear users are not concerned with destroying the culture that was built but they are concerned with opening new doorways that allow them to fit in. But Why can’t deaf people use sign language and talk?

This article "I Have a Child With a Cochlear Implant in My Preschool Classroom. Now, What?" by Carrie A. Davenport and Sheila R. Albert-Morgan dealt with the issue of exploring the fact that although cochlear implant technology is progressing rapidly through the years, there is however still a lack of capacity at the school level. This article also provides awareness of what individualized education program (IEP) teams can practice while raising the learning skills of a deaf child who uses cochlear implants. The main focus of this article is to help teachers provide the best education for children who are deaf and use cochlear implants while in classrooms, by implementing ways teachers can provide the appropriate accommodations to their students,

I found this eye-opening. I don't have any close personal relationship with anyone in the deaf community, nor did I realize there was such an exclusivity. According to the article assigned, many in the deaf community are against the notion that being deaf is a disability that doesn't need to be "fixed." Many are also against parents of deaf children having cochlear implants because of this. It has been pointed out that many that are deaf have gone on to lead very normal and very successful lives, which is wonderful, and proves that hearing loss isn't necessarily a disability. Those of us outside the deaf community may have a difficult time understanding the lives of deaf people, so if hearing parents bear a deaf child, making a decison on behalf

The article “Parents of deaf children with cochlear implants: a study of technology and community” focus mostly on the clinical structures and how parents decide to use cochlear implant or not. The data shows that the clinic, the state and local school districts are working together to anticipate parental needs.