After my last post, I felt it necessary to touch on how much the CI has affected the Deaf community and its relation to communication. Stating the obvious is that many of the people who have gone through the surgery tend to switch from using ASL to using the oral method of English. For a person who has always grown up in the world of English-users, this may not seem like a problem. However, if you are a person who has grown up in the Deaf culture community, you're viewpoint may be different. Much of this is due to the same issues which the previous CBS article mentioned: changing a person's hearing ability also changes ones culture. This is an intense subject which I feel deserves some further thought on your part before I continue with my perspective. Think hard about what it would really mean to change the culture you grew up with; the culture you continue to be a part of today. In the meantime, I will leave you with this video...
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
I found the following article at CBS News.com which I think does a good job at summarizing some of the issues surrounding the CI:
CBS NEWS
The deaf community feels that its way of life is fully functional, and that using American Sign Language instead of oral English gives them no disadvantage in society.
Mary Koch, who started the children's rehabilitation program at Johns Hopkins' Listening Center, says the medical world and the deaf world were split at the outset.
"The (deaf community's) perception is that there's nothing wrong. There's nothing that needs to be fixed. Our perception is, there is something that needs to be fixed. So from the very foundation, we're diverging in our perspectives," Koch says.
The deaf revolution was spawned in the 1970's. The culture rebelled against attempts by some educators in the hearing world to teach deaf children to speak English. The "oral" approach discouraged the use of sign language, yet many children - even with the most powerful hearing aids - had difficulty understanding what was supposed to be their native language.
Sigrid Cerf became deaf at the age of three, but grew up outside the deaf community, speaking English and lipreading. She remembers the strain of trying to grasp the subtleties of spoken English.
"It took a great deal of effort to put words together because all I heard were those vowels and my brain would be working and my whole body would be tensed and stressed from trying to piece words together," Cerf explains.
Cerf received a cochlear implant when she was 53, but says she understands the deaf perspective.
"The deaf community is a culture. They're much like the culture of the Hispanic community, for example, where parents who are Hispanic, or shall we say deaf, would naturally want to retain their family ties by their common language, their primary language, which is either Spanish or in our case its American Sign Language," Cerf says.
"It's difficult to accept something that would take someone's entire culture into question."
Gallaudet University - considered the "Harvard" of the deaf community - has been watched closely by all sides in the debate for its position on CIs.
Mercy Coogan, Director of Public Relations at Gallaudet, says the university doesn't have a stand on cochlear implants.
"We try to be a forum where people can look at it objectively," Coogan says. "A university is where you debate issues, then make judgments based on that debate."
CBS NEWS
The Cochlear Implant Controversy
(CBS) The controversy over cochlear implants in children has many sides. For some in the deaf community, CIs are an affront to their culture, which as they view it, is a minority threatened by the hearing majority.The deaf community feels that its way of life is fully functional, and that using American Sign Language instead of oral English gives them no disadvantage in society.
Mary Koch, who started the children's rehabilitation program at Johns Hopkins' Listening Center, says the medical world and the deaf world were split at the outset.
"The (deaf community's) perception is that there's nothing wrong. There's nothing that needs to be fixed. Our perception is, there is something that needs to be fixed. So from the very foundation, we're diverging in our perspectives," Koch says.
The deaf revolution was spawned in the 1970's. The culture rebelled against attempts by some educators in the hearing world to teach deaf children to speak English. The "oral" approach discouraged the use of sign language, yet many children - even with the most powerful hearing aids - had difficulty understanding what was supposed to be their native language.
Sigrid Cerf became deaf at the age of three, but grew up outside the deaf community, speaking English and lipreading. She remembers the strain of trying to grasp the subtleties of spoken English.
"It took a great deal of effort to put words together because all I heard were those vowels and my brain would be working and my whole body would be tensed and stressed from trying to piece words together," Cerf explains.
Cerf received a cochlear implant when she was 53, but says she understands the deaf perspective.
"The deaf community is a culture. They're much like the culture of the Hispanic community, for example, where parents who are Hispanic, or shall we say deaf, would naturally want to retain their family ties by their common language, their primary language, which is either Spanish or in our case its American Sign Language," Cerf says.
"It's difficult to accept something that would take someone's entire culture into question."
Gallaudet University - considered the "Harvard" of the deaf community - has been watched closely by all sides in the debate for its position on CIs.
Mercy Coogan, Director of Public Relations at Gallaudet, says the university doesn't have a stand on cochlear implants.
"We try to be a forum where people can look at it objectively," Coogan says. "A university is where you debate issues, then make judgments based on that debate."
Friday, November 27, 2009
Cochlear Implants Continued...
I happened to run across this informational video about CIs. Because I am more of a "visual" person, I found this much more helpful than reading words on a page. Hope you like it, too!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Cochlear Implants
While pondering on the subjects I have touched in this blog, I realized I never even mentioned cochlear implants (CI). The following information (except the photo) was taken from the NIDCD website:
* A microphone, which picks up sound from the environment.
* A speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone.
* A transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses.
* An electrode array, which is a group of electrodes that collects the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory nerve.
An implant does not restore normal hearing. Instead, it can give a deaf person a useful representation of sounds in the environment and help him or her to understand speech.
I think the reason this subject never came up yet in my blog is because it is an extremely "hot" topic in the Deaf community which I have learned to avoid with grace. The reason for this is that many people in the Deaf community are extremely proud to be Deaf. They would never even consider changing the fact that they are Deaf. Some of these people believe getting a cochlear implant is a way of disrespecting their deafness. On the other hand, there are some who feel if they were a candidate for getting the implant, they would jump on the idea. The whole idea of the cochlear implant has stirred many mixed feelings and has even destroyed close family relationships. If you are truly interested in this subject, I would recommend an entertaining yet informative movie called Sound and Fury. This movie accurately demonstrates the quarrels some families have gone through because of cochlear implants.
What is a cochlear implant?
A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. The implant consists of an external portion that sits behind the ear and a second portion that is surgically placed under the skin. An implant has the following parts:* A microphone, which picks up sound from the environment.
* A speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone.
* A transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses.
* An electrode array, which is a group of electrodes that collects the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory nerve.
An implant does not restore normal hearing. Instead, it can give a deaf person a useful representation of sounds in the environment and help him or her to understand speech.
How does a cochlear implant work?
A cochlear implant is very different from a hearing aid. Hearing aids amplify sounds so they may be detected by damaged ears. Cochlear implants bypass damaged portions of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Signals generated by the implant are sent by way of the auditory nerve to the brain, which recognizes the signals as sound. Hearing through a cochlear implant is different from normal hearing and takes time to learn or relearn. However, it allows many people to recognize warning signals, understand other sounds in the environment, and enjoy a conversation in person or by telephone.
I think the reason this subject never came up yet in my blog is because it is an extremely "hot" topic in the Deaf community which I have learned to avoid with grace. The reason for this is that many people in the Deaf community are extremely proud to be Deaf. They would never even consider changing the fact that they are Deaf. Some of these people believe getting a cochlear implant is a way of disrespecting their deafness. On the other hand, there are some who feel if they were a candidate for getting the implant, they would jump on the idea. The whole idea of the cochlear implant has stirred many mixed feelings and has even destroyed close family relationships. If you are truly interested in this subject, I would recommend an entertaining yet informative movie called Sound and Fury. This movie accurately demonstrates the quarrels some families have gone through because of cochlear implants.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
What VRS can look like for Deaf consumers
This video is good to give an idea of what VRS looks like. Yes, I realize it is quite sarcastic and in the end is an advertisement but I felt it was good for others to see just what Deaf people have to deal with at times. This is yet another example of a presentation of something that does, unfortunately, happen in real life - of course, not quite this dramatic. But one must realize in order for this commercial to make sense, it means it has some truth to the matter.
Kind of sad, don't you think?
Of course, had I been the interpreter in this situation a problem like this wouldn't exist.
I challenge you to consider this video the next time you go to pick up your phone to make a call. Though technology has brought on many wonderful and exciting new inventions to the Deaf community, it also brings with it many new problems. And it is still not as simple as picking up the phone, dialing a number, and hearing the person pick up on the other line.
Kind of sad, don't you think?
Of course, had I been the interpreter in this situation a problem like this wouldn't exist.
I challenge you to consider this video the next time you go to pick up your phone to make a call. Though technology has brought on many wonderful and exciting new inventions to the Deaf community, it also brings with it many new problems. And it is still not as simple as picking up the phone, dialing a number, and hearing the person pick up on the other line.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Funny but True
Here is a Deaf comedian describing exactly what seems to be happening to Deaf culture. (Don't worry, it is interpreted.) It is quite similar to what appears to be happening to hearing cultures also.
When you think about the subject of comedy itself, you must realize that comedy tends to be funny because it is usually some critique of the world itself. If I were to analyze what segments of a comedy show really get me laughing, I would have to admit that most of the time it's the segments which are true to life in some way. Stemming from this idea, I find it interesting that Deaf comedians are now adding the "downside" of technology. I realize this comedian is looking for some laughs but I also realize it wouldn't be quite as funny if there weren't some sort of truth to what he's saying. (Of course, I remember being that ASL student at a Deaf event so that also helps me relate.)
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