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How Cochlear Implants Are Being Blamed For Killing Deaf Culture
First time accepted submitter Maddie Kahn (3542515) writes "Deaf culture has its own language, its own social norms, its own art forms, its own theater. But it's under threat. Why? Because most parents of deaf children now choose to use technology to help their kids hear. This piece explores why a revolutionary technology stands accused of killing a culture."
I mean seriously. There is no down side to going from not hearing to hearing except for having to listen to contemporary "music".
I want to put this in top 10 non-stories of the year...
What a BS reason to get angsty. Technology has enabled clidren to hear so a new generation can NOT have the problems of being deaf. Rejoice that children dont need to be deaf, rather than mourn the disappearing kludges they had to do.
What a travesty! We can't allow deaf people to hear! It will destroy their culture!
Why don't you tell this woman you want her to be deaf again and see what she says:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I'd like to see deaf culture go away because there are no more deaf people.
Also:
I'd like to see paraplegic culture go away, blind culture, Amputee culture, and furries culture. That last one may be tricky
I wonder how many people were angry and vaccine destroying the polio culture?
Yes I did.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
And yes, they were adamantly supportive of the view that "for many Deaf people, every implanted child is a person stolen from their culture." But, keeping in mind that "More than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents", they are effectively laying claim to other people's children.
Look what happened to polio culture. Not cool, man. Not cool.
Yeah! And what about the loss of the tail having culture. Our ancestors were real dicks for coming out of those trees.
This story has appeared a few times on various sites over the last month or so. The fact is it's stupid. "yay, I'm disabled!" Whatever, you're still missing out. Some may think I'm insane but it's gang culture. "Be one of us or die"... Ya, right.
I mean I get it. You're trying to make disabled people feel better about themselves but at a certain point you cross in to MADD insanity.
...that all cultures are equally to be valued. Otherwise, why not create more varieties of people with partial physical deficits, so as to have more such cultures?
But that loss is tremendously outweighed by the benefits of including the (previously?) deaf in the greater culture which is humanity (where they belonged all along, I think?).
but I can't find how to mod TFS as troll.
Glad the comments are unanimous so far...
Cars killed horse culture.
Airplanes killed passenger rail culture.
Woman's rights killed (harmed) misogynistic culture.
The civil war killed slave culture.
The Internet killed letter-mailing culture.
Seriously, what the fuck is the point of this?
The fox with no tail.
It's an old story.
Destroyed slave culture! We must protect slavery so that our children can continue to live and thrive in slave culture! It's our moral responsibility!
this was all the hearing help we needed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
For fear of being modded down into oblivion, I'll post anonymously.
"The very existence of cochlear implants wrongly presupposes that a deaf person is in need of fixing."
This just smacks of self-conscious defensiveness. It is wrong.
The very existence of cochlear implants presupposes that some people who cannot hear may want to hear - much in the same way that the very existence of prosthetic limbs presupposes that some people may wish to use [some limb]. Even better, the very existence of wheel chairs presupposes that the paralyzed may wish to move around from point A to point B.
There is no presupposition of defectiveness in any of those products, only the presupposition that someone may wish to add new functionality to their life. If eye-implants that enable me to see in UV or IR come available, I'll jump! Not because I think I am defective, but because I think it'd be nice to enhance what I am already capable of.
A friend of mine is an interpreter, and she has expressed many of the same concerns -- but I'd be interested in seeing numbers regarding how many in the deaf community are getting the implants. If there's already a stigma in the subculture against them, I can't imagine that this technology really poses a significant threat to the subculture.
Now piss off!
If you want to be a deaf person, that's fine by me, but it doesn't give you any moral imperative to suggest that parents should deny their children their right to hearing.
The only discussion should be about the welfare of kids. Adults should be able to take care of themselves.
This is the most insane article I have ever read.... The deaf culture ???? Beyond words...
I think the article brings to light something I had never even thought about. Lots of people here seem to be against it, but I can definitely how it would be an interesting and important choice to have to make.
That and fear of change are the only reason to make such statements.
I cherish the thought of killing deaf culture, just like I cherish the thought of killing the smallpox and malaria culture. I get that some are proud of what they've accomplished while deaf, but that's a selfish reason to hold against someone who chooses not to have a disability.
Suddenly starting to hear does not detract from the accomplishments of the deaf, it just opens doors to accomplish new things and new possibilities. It doesn't make their art any less valuable or beautiful, it doesn't make their language any less valuable. My 11 month old son knows som sign language! He can hear fine, but kids can sign before they can talk! My family now knows a bit of American sign just for that alone.
Sure, it's not going to be as common, but implants don't fix every reason for being deaf either.
Simple fear of change is all it is.
I understand the fear, all of us have it to some extent in some form. I fear rapid changes in technology that make me out dated and behind younger software engineers, but that's just my fears, not the end of something great. As a result, though I still fear those changes, I adapt and take on a different roll from that 20 something, code for 72 hours straight until I can't see straight age to leading those 20 something's and guiding them with my experience so that they can be more effective.
I don't know what that means for the deaf, but I'm certain those that remain have other things of value ... Being deaf didn't make them worthless, neither will implants. The fact that they can create culture without the ability to hear is proof enough of their alternative skills.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Not everyone's issue can be saved by cochlear implants. So deaf culture won't go extinct that easily.
On the other hand, cochlear implants are not perfect. People wearing it don't hear human-speaking as well as normal people. This is a more pressing issue - deaves are stuck in a bad expectations.
I am Dyslexic and have long and short term memory problems. As it is I feel a bit separated from "normal" society due to my difficulties with communication. I don't find "solidarity" amongst people with similar afflictions enough to warrant cutting myself off from 85+ percent of the species. If I could fix that with an implant i surely would.
If an implant could extend my hearing and vision into the electromagnetic spectrum (without adverse effects on my nervous system or perception organs) i would do that too.
I will get down modded for this, but how about a testimony from a actual user of a cochlear implant (Rush Limbaugh in this case).
CALLER: Hey. I'm just wondering, when you listen to music with your hearing aid, how's it sound?
RUSH: Music?
CALLER: Yeah, like if you're listening to music on an iPad or something?
RUSH: Well, not very good. I cannot listen to music that I've never heard before and identify the melody.
CALLER: Oh.
RUSH: I have a cochlear implant. It doesn't have nearly the sensitivity of the human ear, it's not even close.
CALLER: I was just wondering.
RUSH: Like violins or strings sound like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
CALLER: Oh, well, I was just wondering.
RUSH:What I have to do, I can still listen to music, but it has to be music that I knew and that I've heard before I lost my hearing. And what happens is that my brain, fertile mind, provides the melody. I actually am not hearing the melody, and the way I can prove this to you, sometimes it will take me, even a song that I know, it will take me 30 seconds to identify it if I don't know what it is. Now, if I'm playing a song off iTunes and the title is there and it starts then I can spot it from the middle, but if I'm listening to a song from the beginning, and I don't know what it is, it sometimes can take me 30 seconds to recognize it, if I knew it before. But the quality of music that I hear is less than AM radio, in terms of fidelity. I can turn the bass up on an amplifier and I don't hear any difference at all. I can feel the floor vibrate, but I don't hear any more bass. I can turn highs up and I can hear the difference in the highs, but on the low end I actually cannot -- (interruption) I'm getting a note here that says: "You're not missing anything. There aren't any melodies in music today." (laughing) At any rate, you adapt to it. I've adapted.
The worst part of my hearing is being in a crowd. Like right now, I hear myself as well as I heard myself when I could hear. If I'm talking to one other person in a quiet room I can comprehend 90-95% of what they say depending on how fast they're speaking. There are some words that sound alike. But you add room noise, like if Kathryn and I are watching TV and she wants to talk to me about what we're watching, I have to hit pause or the mute 'cause I cannot hear what she's saying. Even if she's sitting two feet away I will not hear as long as there are other noises there. Any room noise when added to other room noise is gonna be louder than the one voice that I'm trying to hear. I've got the implant on my left side so if we go out in a public place, anybody on my right side, it's hopeless. I'll have to literally turn to them, and sometimes as I turn to them they turn with me. They don't know what I'm doing so we'll do pirouettes 'til I finally say, "No, you stay where you are. I'm trying to position my ear so I can hear you."
The way I look at this, though, because when I tell these stories, "Oh, that's really horrible." No, it's not. 'Cause if you look at the timeline of humanity, however long it is, 10,000 years, a million, billion, whatever the number is, my little time on it is not much larger than a grain of sand. And yet I happen to lose my hearing at the same time technology had evolved to the point where cochlear implants had been invented. If I had lost my hearing 15 years ago, it would have meant the end of my career. I would not have been able to hear. And the doctor said you might think that you could speak normally just by virtue of memory and feel, the way voice feels when you speak, but eventually your speech would deteriorate, and it would sound to people as though you had a speech defect. It would just be automatic no matter how good you are, no matter how professional you are at it. So that's really fortunate. It's almost miraculous that my being afflicted with this autoimmune disease happens to coincide with technology. Some call it divine intervention. Some call it the age of miracles. We're all one way or anot
YES!
Putting aside the radicalism, there is a legitimate issue: the fix does not work for everyone and those left behind will face a diminished culture as their numbers dwindle. Specifically, those profoundly deaf who reached adulthood never able to hear will never learn to speak even if they get the implant. There are probably others who are medically not able to accept the implant but the articles I have found do not discuss this issue.
Here is some Deaf Leper for your enjoyment.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Giving this kid cochlear implants to be subjected to that could be child abuse.
Go back to tumblr. Deaf people are broken. If they want to remain that way, fine. But to force that shit on a kid because you want to preserve your "culture" is the height of fucking stupidity. Fuck you and fuck "deaf culture."
Deaf culture Destroyed? These parents are assholes, and I'd never write a story about them other than that letting people know I turned them into child protective services.
The fucking nerve of doctors and their trying to help people. What's next, People wanting to let paralyzed people rot because we don't want to destroy Quadriplegic Culture?
And what about the always jolly brotherhood of cancer culture? Gotta preserve that.
And if the child were to need something simple like glasses, hell, there is a blind culture too. Wouldn't want to miss out on that. As a (nearly)deaf person, All I can say to these parents is that if you did that to me, I'd seek emancipation as soon as possible, and then have your sorry whack-a-doodle asses arrested for willfiul negligence and child abuse.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
You know that "i shit in a bag and cant use my limbs" quadriplegic culture? stem cell or synthetic biology cures should be outlawed because nobody will come to our meetings if they can walk to the bathroom on their own. Clearly being deaf is quite minor in comparison but hearing is better than not. its not a rude statement aimed to undermine the deaf. one more sense is literally greater than one less. i want deaf people to have access to either a cultural identity they feel matters, or the ability to hear things. both are personal choice, but dont whine and try to deprive people of hearing just for your idea of whats important.
"a revolutionary technology stands accused of killing a culture."
Holy fucken shit! I can't allow that to happen! I'm going to wear ear plugs from now on so I can keep the culture alive!
A child needs to pick up their spoken language early. The first year that a child spends deaf is already far too long, and puts the child at a disadvantage throughout their life.
A person who becomes hearing as an adult will never regain the ground that they lost. Speech will always remain a second language to them. Brain scans have shown that languages learned in adulthood end up in a different part of the brain to languages learnt in infancy.
The earlier, the better. If implanting could be done before the child is one month old, it would be great.
Its a good thing that we can directly address a disability like this and practically eradicate it from society. Lets hope it happens tomorrow.
Or does the poster think its great to go deaf with no hope?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I expect deaf culture, blind culture, amputee culture, etc. will disappear and the re-appear as implants, prosthetics and other assistive technology gets better and better.
"What you mean you CAN'T see into the infrared and you don't have 100X zoom? You mundanes are so pathetic".
[Insert pithy quote here]
Back in the days of race-based "red-lining" and "Whites-only" legally-enforced racially-segregated neighborhoods, rich and middle-class African-Americans had to live in the "non-white" part of town, along with the poor African-Americans and other non-Whites.
Once the zoning laws, deed restrictions, and race-based morgtage- and homeowners-insurance redlining disappeared, non-Whites had as much choice as white people when it came to where they wanted live. Money or lack of it still limited their choices, but their skin color was no longer a barrier.
Now, middle-class African-Americans who move into a city are likely to move into a "middle class" neighborhood, not a "Black" neighborhood.
We went from a society that had a more distinct "Black middle class" that was created out of racial discrimination into one where if there is a "Black middle class" that's distinct from a "Middle class" the distinction is much weaker than it once was, but where there is no legally-enforced racial discrimination and much less (and someday soon I hope, no) racial discrimination denying African-Americans and other non-Whites the same rights and opportunities enjoyed by White people.
I for one don't want to undo the last 50 years of racial desegregation just to bring back the distinct "Black middle class."
Likewise, I don't think we should deny today's children the ability to hear - albeit in a limited way - just to preserve "Deaf culture."
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
you have killed plague culture.
lose != loose
...enlarging the greater culture? Or do you feel that the current "greater culture" is a finished product which needs no further evolution?
I have an autism diagnosis and social interaction is damn hard work sometimes. But I also get to find rewarding experiences in stuff that neurotypicals take for granted. Drinking made my situation worse, not better. Suggest trying a different approach. Sorry if it's more work for you. It is for me. But it's worth it. What have you got to lose?
Alexander Graham Bell's central interest of his life was deaf education or that he was one of the most prominent proponents of oralism in the United States... After emigrating from England to Canada in 1870 Bell began to teach speech to deaf students using a universal alphabet invented by his father called "Visible Speech." In 1872 he opened a school in Boston to train teachers of deaf children.
Bell's second chief interest was the study of heredity and animal breeding, - you can see where this is headed...
----
Bell warned of a "great calamity" facing the nation: deaf people were forming clubs, socializing with one another and, consequently, marrying other deaf people. The creation of a "deaf race" that yearly would grow larger and more insular was underway. Bell noted that "a special language adapted for the use of such a race" already was in existence, "a language as different from English as French or German or Russian." Some eugenicists called for legislation outlawing intermarriage by deaf people http://www.pbs.org/weta/throug...
Found that by accident. I was searching for mass killings of the deaf; due to the mentioning that "the deaf can't have faith" - I would assume the Catholics alone would have a history of it.
Only came across the Holocaust where they were treated very badly (considering).
Could be the deaf weren't found in large numbers in the past.
That probably has more to do with the fact they lack immunity to a host of diseases and 20-60% of the population with die in shortly after contact.
Just.. Who in the right mind would rather be deaf for the rest of their lives than to be able to hear?
Leave it to idiots to make such claims....
I was going to come up with a cure for cancer, but since it might endanger the culture of cancer support groups, I guess I won't.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
When checks where more popular, deaf people used to LOVE bouncing checks. Try getting that money back from them. They use their deafness as a defense in this case. It seemed that they felt that society owed them and bouncing checks was their paypack. They did not care at ALL that it was the 'little guy' they were hurting.
That is one element of Deaf culture I am glad to see go away.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Srsly. Penicillin killed the Polio Iron Lung culture. Lister and carbolic acid killed the gangrene culture. You want us to bring those back too?
Since the christaline is opaque to UV while some intraocular lenses are not, some people report that after cataract surgery, they can see in augmented colour, probably due to some sensitivity to UV.
slashdot talked about it a while back
http://ask-beta.slashdot.org/story/11/10/02/1937232/ask-slashdot-how-to-exploit-post-cataract-ultraviolet-vision
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/14/165202/followup-ultraviolet-vision-after-cataract-surgery
So if/when the time comes to replace your christaline, make sure to go for the UV transparent lenses
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
Gay culture
Casterati culture created beautiful music. Lets bring it back! And what red-blooded man would trust his wife with anyone other than a eunuch? These are wonderful cultures that have contributed to the beauty and security of being a testicled man Besides, the more of them, the more babes for the rest of us!
The only people bemoaning the loss of the deaf and "deaf culture" are the organizations that prey on people's guilt in order to gather lots of donations so they can pay themselves millions of dollars a year.
Posts like this are constantly make me question if I should keep returning to this site. Seriously? What parent wouldn't want their kids to be able to hear things if they have the financial means to do so? Who cares if a culture is killed off because we are enabling people to hear/hear again. Should we complain about eliminating wheel-chair marathons because we helped people walk again? Let's just boast about how technology is improving the quality of life instead of focusing on small and insignificant rubbish.
If it's a valuable culture, and I don't doubt it is, they should look at Latin and begin the process of preserving the greater works.
Gently reply
I guess this is the sort of thing BadAnalogyGuy is supposed to handle, but he wandered off years ago so here goes............
After Stalin died in '53 a large number of zeks were amnestied from Soviet gulags. And while not all of the gulags were shut, so many victims were released that the critical mass necessary to sustain the gulag culture collapsed and the gulag culture, central to the lives of so many Russians, lost its vitality. Those that were not released were left to the ravages of forced labor, sans the support network they'd relied on for years.
Navel gazers. I swear to God. I really hate to say it but this demented shit is exactly what Hanns Johst had in mind when he wrote (approximately); "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my Browning."
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
My wife got pregnant in her mid-forties. At the OB/GYN I asked about Down's. The doc said that 90%(+) of the time, Down's babies miscarry anyway. Having a Down baby is actually pretty rare.
I've also seen the same arguments with the Spina Bifida "culture" and not wanting the surgury.
I think some people just want company in their misery - allthough they put on a brave face about being "happy" and "fulfllled".
Let's kill blind culture next.
" Because most parents of deaf children now choose to use technology to help their kids hear."
And how about parents that CANNOT pay for this technology? HUH? The Deaf culture will be alive for long, dears. This is so stupid like to say that glasses factories will broke since all people chooses a Lasik operation.
Why does this keep coming up again and again? I remember reading articles (and many are still available, I checked Yahoo) in the early to mid 2000's, and again a few years later. One woman even wrote:
If the hearing aid didn't kill off deaf culture, then the CI won't! Did you guys know that back in the early days of hearing aids, they thought that hearing aids would hurt and destroy Deaf culture?
If anyone wants to maintain such a culture, they may render themselves deaf if not already and refuse treatment. What they may NOT do is force or control others into doing so. You do not get to live other people's lives for them.
And yet I happen to lose my hearing at the same time technology had evolved to the point where cochlear implants had been invented. If I had lost my hearing 15 years ago, it would have meant the end of my career.
God really is kind of a dick, isn't he?
[url:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/08/davidteather/]
The link above is why I really hope that parents continue to augment their children with implants or anything else needed to give their child the best advantages in life.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
Technology killing a culture? I've never heard such a thing
Maybe, for me, this is more about "minority culture" in general than "deaf culture" in particular. "Deaf Culture" is an adaptation for people who can't hear. Once you can hear, you no longer need the social adaptation.
I'm a member of a minority. For those of you who don't know, I'm black. At one time, black people were denied access to educational opportunities an that in turn lead to fewer career prospects. My parents and grandparents worked very, VERY hard to give me opportunities and I took advantage of them. I finished high school. I attended college. I earned a Master of Science degree. Consequently, I have a pretty good job. I've been accused of turning my back on "African American culture" because I speak like I paid attention in school. I don't use the "What up dawgg?" vernacular that some other people (who happen to look kind of like me) do. I have been accused of having "forgotten where you came from", as if I didn't come from a middle-income, racially diverse suburb.
Once we were no longer denied access to quality education, it was no longer necessary to speak AAVE (African American Vernacular English) or "Ebonics" that some people like to call it. We were able to learn standard American English and it benefits one to do so.
I understand the desire for deaf people to adopt the mantra "There's nothing 'wrong' with the way we are." but in reality there is. You can't hear!
I'm sorry if people take it personally that their social adaptation is becoming less necessary for future generations. I'm sorry that they feel lonely or abandoned. This is a good thing. This is progress. This means that fewer people will have to live with the handicap(sorry for the loaded term) of not being able to hear.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Yes, next let's get rid of capital punishment...OH WAIT then all the death row inmates will lose their cultural heritage.
Maybe we should rid the world of hungry...OH WAIT then all the starvin Marvins will have no culture left.
For any invasive surgery, especially when messing around with nerves that are so close to brain on young children, involves risk. There are existing risks in the procedure, enough to cause disastrous results for the rest of the child's life. There is no undo or redo. When the implant fails, all of the child's residue hearing is lost forever. The child is even more deaf than ever. So, now what? I work at an environment with many teenagers that has failed implants. They became erratic, lonely, and depressed. They couldn't speak or sign well. It is sad to witness their psychological struggles because they are travelling toward a place that are not accepted by many - deaf and hearing. The saddest part is, they are not usually accepted by their immediate family members. They continuously wonder, do deaf people have right to exist? The implant technology is amazing. The processing power and channels has improved tremendously. The size of the device has became smaller and durable. These hardware advances are wonderful, however, the "human software" part hasn't advanced much to "try and catch errors and exceptions." There are ways to better handle "bugs." Instead of panic-and-fix-by-brute-force-patch. Learning a new language, celebrating diversity, developing tolerance, studying cultures, and respecting differences are critical soft skills in many situations, especially interacting with people who are drastically different.
The culture surrounding the buying and selling of slaves is gone here in the USA as well.
(Willing to take the massive downmods I deserve to answer the A/C troll - downmod away, folks. I suppose I'm bringing it on myself).
Close, but there's a more powerful factor than feeling "special/different/unique/etc." Money. The vast majority of the Deaf Culture advocates come from the ASL-oriented* state schools for the deaf and universities like Gallaudet. There is a very cozy relationship between the state schools and the state early intervention specialists who visit parents with informational materials. Most of these people are basically recruiters for the ASL state schools who downplay cochlear implants and related educational pathways. If the parents instead chose a cochlear implant and a (usually) private school that specializes in teaching their kid to speak and listen, then the ASL state school has one less student, less money, etc. This is big money in some states. Just drive past the local school and look at their grounds, buildings, and vehicles. My local ASL-oriented state school has a coach bus that rivals most sports teams.
Now, look at the stats. Numerous longitudinal, NIH-funded studies show that kids who get implants early enough to take advantage of the language development window (before 5 years old, and preferably before 1 or 2) and receive intensive speech and listening instruction are mostly mainstreamed into regular classrooms by the K-2 range. This has a secondary effect since mainstreaming into regular schools at this age is one of the strongest indicators of literacy in deaf kids, regardless of communication method. As we all know, literacy impacts employment and independence. (Side note, Gallaudet almost lost accreditation due to poor student literacy.) Unfortunately, many ASL kids end up in the ASL state schools and generally have poor literacy when they graduate 13 years later. Remember, ASL is not English and has a completely different linguistic structure.
The second major stat is that 90% of the kids are born to hearing parents. Aside from the better life outcomes, forcing deaf kids into ASL schools to learn a language and culture differing from their parents essentially removes parental choice from the equation. As a parent, this is seriously messed up. I should have the right, and access to information, that will allow me to raise my kid with my language and culture if I wish. This isn't an immigrant language issue either since I grew up in my society's culture and a native speaker of my society's predominant language.
I have deep knowledge of this, both personally and from a scientific perspective. So why am I posting anon? There are Deaf Culture advocates who are particularly nasty. I have a friend who received death threats at home and wears a flack jacket in certain venues. People find their windshields greased, tires deflated, etc. Proud parents who post videos of they child's cochlear implant activations and progress on YouTube are targeted, insulted, and told they are horrible parents. Extremists pretend to be academics and reporters, but then twist interviews out of context on blog posts. The list goes on.
Again: it comes down to money and parental choice.
* Some state schools claim to be Bi-Bi or Total Communication. This is just propaganda. These are basically ASL instruction with token instruction in lipreading, cochlear implant use, and speaking. Imagine trying to learn to speak or listen with only a couple hours of instruction each week from instructors who are not experts in the topic.
"All Polish people are stupid"
"All Mexicans are lazy"
I'm sure some deaf people are as cynical and mean-spirited as you say. Based on the number of deaf children who have received cochlear implants (and the number I've heard about from time to time that want their children to get them but can't afford it), I'm going to say you need to use a somewhat narrower scope there.
(NOTE: I hope I wasn't out of line with those cracks about black, Polish and Mexican people)
I still don't see what's inherently wrong with letting a culture die off. If people don't want to live a certain way, stop forcing them to do so. If people are finding a better way of life, let them live it. Perhaps one day as we as humans become more and more in contact with all humans across the globe will find less, and less reasons to fight each other because we'll see more similarities than differences. Let the differences die off!
How full of yourself can you get.
People can be nuts sometimes. I've read some people even trying to protect autism from any cures from gene therapy or any other method.
Any threats to my culture? Anybody? I am so willing to betray my culture! The music all sounds like tuba solos, and the dancing is done with knees together. We are VERY literate though - a LOT of reading
Mental issues are different from physical ones. I can't rightly comprehend how someone who is physically unable to do something that other people can do (like see or hear) could consider that something worth preserving, but there are large communities of people with autism spectrum "disorders" who consider the way that they think and feel to be not less capable than how other people think or feel, but just different.
It's more akin to if society said raw strength was the standard of physical ability, and agility or stamina were neat bonuses to that, but not really important; and then there were other people who were weak by the social standard but had their own physical talents less-valued by that standard, elegant dancers or endurance runners in a world where only power lifters were valued, who refuse to accept that their body's different kind of physical ability is a "disability". (We've actually got something akin to that in body-image discrimination: different healthy body types are usually adept at different kinds of physical activity, but we tend to call e.g. the stocky guy who can lift a car or walk for many miles without even tiring "fat", because he doesn't have a lean body built for running and jumping that we think of as "fit").
In the end, if someone doesn't suffer intrinsically from a trait (thus excluding suffering due only to society's reactions to that trait), then the trait shouldn't count as a "disability" or an "illness".
And whether it does or not, the person with that trait is still a person deserving of the same respect either way.
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
I was just thinking about something similar to this earlier.
Geordi LaForge was included in Star Trek: The Next Generation as the token disabled character, so that disabled people would get representation in the inclusive vision of the future that show painted -- similar to how the Original Series depicted a Russian, a (nonspecific) Asian, and a black woman, all serving on the bridge in a show targeted at a predominantly white male American culture, to show how different nationalities, races, and sexes could all work together in harmony in the future.
But in an idealistic utopian future like Trek presents, shouldn't all disabilities be cured? Disability isn't some harmless difference like race or sex or nationality or whatever that we want to show all integrated and coexisting in the future. Showing a future where somehow all blacks had become white, all women had become men, and so on, would be ridiculous and dystopian. But showing a world where all disabled people were as able as anyone else... isn't that what we're aiming for? Isn't that the point of medicine?
Why isn't there a token poor character on the bridge of the Enterprise? Every series depicts nothing but well-to-do people with all their material needs met, pursuing science and such for the intrinsic fulfillment of those activities -- nobody's struggling just to make ends meet, like many people do in real life. Sound the cries of "class discrimination!" then, shall we? Against the erasure of the lower classes?
No, that would be stupid. The reason there's no poor people serving on the bridge of the Enterprise is because in Star Trek's utopian future, poverty has been eliminated. Why is disability any different? Why does it show a somehow better future to have a token disabled character, but not a token poor character?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
8 years ago I went and got myself implanted, and never looked back. I had lost 100% of my hearing in my left ear and 90% of my hearing in my right ear at 8 years old, when I was hit by a car. Despite losing so much, the deaf culture never really accepted me, since I was never really considered truly deaf. I wasn't born into it, and spent a better part of 26 years kind of stuck in between the hearing and deaf world. I could sign, I could speak, and often I found myself interpreting for some deaf friends while I was growing up. But never, during that entire time, was I ever really accepted by the deaf culture.
These friends I lost, when I decided to go ahead and get myself implanted. They couldn't understand why I wanted to be a part of something I never could have been, and I reminded them that the deaf panthers (same vein as the black panthers) never really did accept me as a part of the deaf culture, and I was really sick of being neither "deaf" or "hearing".
They viewed their deafness as something to be proud about. I viewed it as something that was holding me back. They day I let them know I was going to get implanted, and hoped that they would understand, they looked at me as if I was something disgusting. Being called a traitor, could have been nicer than some of the things they called me then.
Deaf Pride? Deaf Culture? Pshaw. While I have nothing really to compare the quality of the sound that the implant has given me, I can compare them to the $1200 digital hearing aid I had purchased an year earlier. When I left the store, and fired up my car, the song I was listening to before sounded completely different. It sounded better, and I realized I was hearing things I never really could with the old crappy hearing aids I had before. Then when I got my implant turned on, there was no comparison. I've tried listening with both my hearing aid (right ear, 90% loss) and my implant (left ear, previously 100% loss), and found that I could not stand the hearing aid any more. It's been sitting in my desk drawer in the 8 year since I had my implantation.
If some people wants to fool themselves into thinking that Deafness is something to be proud of, then by all means, let them. I'm going to get my right ear implanted soon, and while I'll never truly be a hearing person, at least, I'll leave a major part of my deafness behind.
So what, I was there, experienced it, it's gone. Let this go the same way. - HEX
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
Yea, we should go back to the "natural" way of dealing with Down's syndrome the way it was done for 99% of human history, which is just leave them in the woods/jungle to be eaten by bears, dogs, lions. That's of course assuming the parents didn't just go for straight up infanticide.
The fact that we take care of people who are unable to care for themselves is a fairly new phenomenon.
Whenever possible, it should be encouraged to integrate into society as a whole, either by working around the disability, or working with it. Forming exclusionary "cliques" just because they are defective is a guaranteed way to further marginalize these people. "Deaf Culture" can die to the sound of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
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I get that reference! I remember reading it back in high school.
"Harrison Bergeron", by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I don't read AC A human right
Sorry, when I see "deaf culture", that's impression I get.
Can you blame a parent for not wanting their child to be socialized in a broader environment?
Not hemmed in my an arbitrary, self-reinforcing "culture" based on something like a shared, but treatable disability?
This has the markings of more technophobic histrionics.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
... the culture of leper colonies is almost dead.
Contact Lenses have destroyed the Four-Eye Culture as well, Dentures killed the Mush-Eater Culture.
A shame, really.
Put any sectarian culture in place of "deaf culture" and it would apply just as much. The anger isn't aimed at deaf people (a common misconception amongst deaf people) but against the separatist deaf culture that this group tends to practice against the rest of the population. Being part of society is a verb, it's called "participating" and it requires you to actively engage with others. If deaf people want to be accepted, they have to participate and not choose their own culture at the expense of being isolated. Any time this sort of choice is made, it is a clear sign of dangerous sectarian behavior and it is almost always damaging to those inside the culture.
I understand that there is certain humor that will get lost in translation and the way deaf people use other senses to compensate for their lack of hearing and it would be nice of those could be preserved. If the price for that preservation would be to withhold a minor from medical care that could enable them to be part of a hearing society, I think the parents should lose custody and the child should get proper medical care. "Special" does not always mean better, you wouldn't operate on a hearing child to make it deaf, just so it would better be able to communicate with it's deaf parents, would you? The decision to operate or not should never be about the parents culture, but about giving your child the best chances it will have in a world were the vast majority of people is able to hear one way or the other.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
http://slashdot.org/firehose.p...
Note: I am not the author of the following quote, this is a copy/paste.
http://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1
http://www.reddit.com/r/h1z1/c...
"Hi there,
I wanted to tell you about an exciting new free-to-play game we've had under wraps here at SOE for some time. It's called H1Z1. It's a massively multiplayer game in which players fight for survival in a world where death is the only sure thing. The H1Z1 virus devastated mankind and left nothing but death and destruction in its wake and a world nearly empty of human life where the remnants of humanity are in a fight against extinction against those infected with the virus. It's been 15 years since H1Z1 was first encountered and what's left of the world before is overrun with the Infected. Humanity has been reduced to hiding in the shadows, searching desperately for food and water and anything that can help to survive even for another day. But the Infected aren't the only dangers in the world. Everyday life in the Apocalypse means dealing with all kinds of wild animals and the brutality of other survivors, as well as finding your next meal and a safe place to sleep. It also means scavenging or crafting anything that can help you live just one more day. In H1Z1 every minute of every day is borrowed time and fearing for your life.unless you are the Danger (talking to you Walter), but life can and will go on.even in circumstances as dire as this. Humanity has not given in to the Infected. There are still pockets of humanity and the fight goes on!
Our vision for this game is very simple but ambitious. We are starting with what I would call "Middle America" - an "anywhere and everywhere" town. The world is massive as you've come to expect from our games. Over time we will grow the world until we have our own version of the U.S. after the death and destruction brought on during the H1Z1 epidemic. It will be our own version of America. We'll have urban cities and desolate wide open places. All connected seamlessly. Our focus is building a sandbox style of gameplay where players can build shelters out of resources in the world. They can even work together to make amazing fortresses complete with weaponry to help defend against both the Infected and other players. Players also have access to a very deep crafting system that can let players make a huge variety of awesome stuff, including weapons (I made a 1911 the other day) and things like Molotov cocktails, explosives.. and other fun surprises.
I will also go right to the heart of the question a lot of players will have - "There are a lot of survival / Zombie games.how is this one going to be any different?". First off, it's a persistent MMO that can hold thousands of players on servers we host (yes there will be multiple servers with very different rule sets). Why is that a good thing? It means a thriving economy (oh yes.there's trading). It also means you have potential allies in the all-out war on the Infected... and many an enemy as well. It uses our proprietary next-gen Forgelight engine and that means we've had a lot of really cool technology to work with to make the game we wanted to make. It's also designed from the ground up for our players to become part of the design process. The Roadmap system that we built for PlanetSide 2 will be used extensively to clearly communicate what features we're working on and what you can expect and when. You're also going to be getting awesome access to our developers. We'll be opening it up for Player Studio creations too so expect player-created items to make their way into the game. The main thing that differentiates H1Z1 from the other great games in the genre is the emphasis we are putting on player ownership and building. We want you to be able to form roving gangs that are headquartered out of an abandoned war
I see what you did there:
Once the death from old age or illnesses is out,
then everyone will, with pretty good certainty,
at some point of their life,
die in a terrible accident!
Why the heck is ASL not American English? Perhaps there is a good reason, but it just seems silly to me, and it seems like something that would make it that much harder for someone who is hearing impaired to interact with those that are not. The fact that it is a different format is not a reason. I mean written and spoken English are very different formats, and do not have a direct 1-1 mapping in terms of things like letters to phonemes and so on, but yet they are exceedingly similar. I fail to see why this couldn't be done with ASL. Yes, you are going to want to have signs that represent words, rather than letters or phonemes. No problem, however syntax, grammar, structure, etc should all be the same as spoken or written English.
I'm not deaf but I would love to hack one up to feed in data from interesting types of sensors. And screw you lot with your "five senses only" culture.
BTW I worked with a guy who's young son has a cochlear implant. The boy tended to break the antenna connector on the embedded receiver while tearing around at school, leading to expensive surgery to replace it. His dad told me that the current unit could be made to work for a while by squeezing his son's head in such a way as to re-seat the antenna connection...
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Yes...let's stop making wheelchairs and stop dreaming of prosthetic legs as well.
Screw restoring vision of the blind...we'd be destroying their culture?
These people need to wake up.
You're not bats.
You're not SPECIAL.
You have a medical condition which we've been trying to overcome for years. Finally technology has evolved enough to slowly fix these problems.
I'm sure that the people throwing accusations are the ones who've been deaf for 20+ years and are basically CHICKEN to try and learn to talk(which one would have to if they begin to talk).
Now for the troll part.
CULTURE?
If being deaf was a culture they would simply stop opening their mouth and stop trying to product sounds(admit it...it's disgusting when they talk).
They're probably jealous of the people who are not 100% deaf, get an implant and actually manage to talk to other people without putting pressure on them.
By pressure I mean the fact that if you don't know sign language and have to rely on their ability to produce coherent sentences it gets quite stressful after a few hours.
You have to double check everything you heard...decide what exactly you heard then you yourself have to talk like an idiot if the person isn't good at READING lips.
So like the post at the beginning.
The DEAF CULTURE can't really die fast enough.
... For Killing Leper Colony Culture
How Diplomats Are Being Blamed For Killing War Poetry Culture
etc.
Didn't he heal all sorts of ailments? Deafness, paraplegia, etc.? Man, he must have been one bad sort of fellow ...
And we shouldn't give people that have had their legs blown off in war prosthetic leg because if we do we will kill the wheelchair culture.
Twenty-five years ago, I read in a french magazine (Science et Vie) an article about the french deaf community's complaints that hearing implants destroyed their culture and language. They even went into the genocide comparisons.
For a blind cure blindness is a cause for celebration. Deafness must cause mental retardation.
As Jesus said, "there's no pleasing some people".
...are killing amputee culture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeygYqOn8g
This little girl kind of encapsulates what I think a lot of deaf people feel a loss for when talking about technology destroying deaf culture. However, I'm with the rest here who believe that Cochlear implants are a positive development for deaf people in general. Heck I wish things were like they used to be before cable TV and the internet. I think families were closer. We're not going back there without the collapse of society. The implants are here to stay.
Surgeons correct cleft pallets.
Vaccines immunize against formerly rampant / deadly diseases.
Cochlear implants give hearing to the deaf.
We've started to see the first "bionic" eyes (granted, low resolution, brain has to retrain to use them).
All of these are advances, but they kill of cultures centered around their afflictions. I think we can all agree, good riddance.
It's probably companies that specialize in equipment used for the hearing impaired that are whining.
Don't some women feel the same way about those that get breast implants?
Because I am mildly autistic (fka Asperger's) I can do a handful of things brilliantly, such as software development. Yet, it is still a handicap, and if there were some way I could become "normal" in this area, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I would very gladly give up the benefits of being good at a few things, in exchange for being able to learn how to be a friend, or to read people's emotions, or to know how to rejoice with someone who is happy or comfort someone who is sad. Or even to be able to talk to someone without inadvertently upsetting, disappointing, and hurting him or her on a regular basis. While my handicap may be mild compared to others', and while it may even be a part of God's plan for my life, I'm not going to pretend that it isn't a handicap, or that it doesn't hurt, or that it is better to be a rude, socially insensitive jerk than not to.
Nonaggression works!
The difference between those who have implants and those who don't is that the former group can turn it off if they want to "appreciate" deaf culture. Those who aren't deaf need to stick their fingers in their ears and say "LALALALALALA!!!" to avoid listening to stupid stuff.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/maybe-its-just-me/201102/selecting-deafness-in-children
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
It's dead.
I don't think that most commenters are comprehending the reason why Deaf culture exists, or why the Deaf don't identify as specifically disabled or have a wish for cochlear implants - because not being able to hear music, environmental sounds, etc. are not the disabling aspects of deafness. It's kind of petty, actually. Living without music blows (born with residual hearing, lost the rest throughout adulthood) and most Deaf people have to be hyper-vigilant with visual scanning but it's not that bad at all.
What is actually disabling about deafness is the loss of communication. With the way that the d/Deaf were forced to be mainstreamed into society (speech therapy, "lip reading" nevermind that a large majority of phonemes share visemses so it's imperfect and nothing like you see on TV, other oralist tactics) there was basically a substandard caste of people who were disabled - you'd never be able to interact with a hearing person the way that hearing people interact with each other.
Within a Deaf community, there isn't that disability as everyone uses signed languages. Conversation is as fluid and easy as it is for somebody who is hearing. I mean, it's very hard for somebody with good hearing to understand just how painful it is to be alone, unable to hear people or otherwise interact, and how much of a relief it is to finally be able to be with a group of people who have both a shared common experience and the ability to communicate fully. This is where the culture arises, not to spite the hearing or try to radicalize deafness, but because of the isolation that deafness otherwise wroughts. There are hyperbolic examples thrown around but as long as one is sensitive of the issues of deafness most Deaf communities are even fine with hearing people hanging around as long as they can sign too (speaking from personal experiences in Deaf communities).
With the issue of cochlear implants, the big pushback isn't entirely that the Deaf resent hearing, but that they don't view the "disability" of not being able to hear certain things as bad as the hearing do (who almost certainly do in reflection of their own enjoyment of their hearing and a fear of a loss - the deaf don't really care). With that lightened weight, cochlear implants are a very invasive surgery and while there's a good amount of excellent success stories, there's still a high amount of risk involved and they might not even work.
To a lot of people in the Deaf community, especially those who entered the community not from birth but were isolated into it by the larger hearing society, it's just not that risk of pain, surgery gone wrong, or deformation otherwise just to give a child a chance to maybe hear as well as they would've otherwise. ASL is a surgery-free solution, and the community does provide support. It's really not just small isolated groups of radicals.
Understand too, please, that the Deaf community is again not rooted in the identity of deafness as a disability, but the communication through ASL as dictated by deafness. There's no blind culture or polio culture or whatever else because those are not disabilities that remove one from normal society in a lack of interaction. Things are far better with the internet but that only goes so far.
I just wanted to present the other side against the polemic. I'd advise a lot of people to keep an open mind, dispell some of the internet stereotypes they've heard, and maybe look into an issue a bit more. We're not so bad as the spooks that everything seems to make us out to be.
(I would also mention, Deaf people are largely unemployed because 1 in 25 people with disability are unemployed - even when I was simply hard of hearing it was witheringly difficult to get a job. Cochlear implants can cost upwards of $100,000.00 and while insurance will cover that for a lot of people, many of us have been uninsured or do not have coverage that would provide that. It is not a solution for everyone, though like any new technology, those who are proponents of it believe it should be de
Where exactly do you live?
Tell that to FFA, 4-H, and anyone who eats beef. Trust me, cows without horses would just stand there and be cows. As nice as they are, they're not exactly self-starters.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
We've actually got something akin to that in body-image discrimination: different healthy body types are usually adept at different kinds of physical activity, but we tend to call e.g. the stocky guy who can lift a car or walk for many miles without even tiring "fat", because he doesn't have a lean body built for running and jumping that we think of as "fit"
Interesting choice. There are some cultures (especially in the south) that use "healthy" and "thin," rather than "fat" and "fit," respectively. And "thin" is almost always said with a derisive tone implying that the person is too obsessed with body image to eat properly.
I'm deaf. I despise "deaf culture". Deafness is a disability that we should strive to overcome and eradicate instead of retreating into a ghetto of our own making.
We recently saw the play "Tribes" which deals with much of this. Synopsis:
http://www.guthrietheater.org/...
Well, apparently, you only have to fool the majority of people for a little while.
This is the beginning of the end. Everyone, given that we are all born equal, has a God-given right to become a god themselves.
I mean seriously. There is no down side to going from not hearing to hearing except for having to listen to contemporary "music".
How is this horse shit actually modded up?
If you want to know what is killing Deaf culture, look no further than everyone who can hear and refuses to make any accommodations for us Deaf. So we run in droves to get CI (I just got mine 6 weeks ago) so that we don't become isolated and unemployable!
The standard list of ways we "oppress" hearing people with our "special needs":
1. Captions are so annoying. Who cares if we can't understand movies/tv/youtube/netflix as long as YOU don't have to be annoyed
2. People that know I'm Deaf still call me on the phone. are... you... fucking... stupid?
3. People that know I'm Deaf will walk over to my desk and talk to me, in an office where everyone is on company IM server all day long. are... you... that... stupid?
4. I'm going to guess that 95% of americans know the phrase No Habla Ingles. Maybe 10% know the sign for Deaf
5. I talk fine, but if I answer someone verbally, they assume I can hear them speak even though I said I'm Deaf. is it really possible to be this stupid???
A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in God.
She hated the, as she described, "Capital-D" Deaf Community. At a young age, she was taught so well that people tended to not notice her deafness (including myself on occasion), and she describes how other would call her a "sellout" and a "traitor" for learning a "hearing language". She just simply considers herself bilingual (English and ASL).
:)
Oh, and despite near-total deafness since birth, she could sing... on tune! Karaoke was one of her favorite activities.
She did try to give herself hearing. She once tried a pair of hearing aids that could allow her to very faintly hear sounds, but since all she knew in life was deafness, she couldn't process anything besides 'white noise'. She considered it a failed experiment, but at least she tried it.
Once implants get better than actual hearing, the rest of us will be the new "deaf" and we get to inherit the culture.
I got titanium and bone grafts, so doesn't matter if the machines or the zombies rise up, I am already a Zomborg!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
If you find your condition limiting then I agree it's fine to call it a handicap or a disability or an illness or what have you. I'm just supportive of people who might have similar conditions and like being that way and not want to be any different -- people who'd find that becoming 'normal' would be tradeoff that's not worth it. (And contrasting that with something like blindness or deafness, where it's not like you get Daredevil-like powers by being blind, or X-ray vision from being deaf... there's nothing you would lose from gaining an ability others have and you lack. It's not a different emphasis or optimization of different traits like many mental conditions can be, it's just a deficit in one).
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Video killed the radio star.
Deaf is not merely a disability, it is a point of identity. As a point of identity that does not hold power, it is a wellspring of MINORITY PRIVILEGE. It is no different than being black. It has its ghetto and expressions. Cochlear implants is a form of "race change operation" from non-hearing to hearing just as it is from nonwhite to white.
Cultural Marxism 101, prove otherwise.
I agree completely. I have severe brain damage, essentially a break in the Corpus Callosum for all intents and purposes. I was "gifted" this brain damage by a physically abusive parent who stamped on my head when I was a toddler. (That wasn't the worst thing that happened, by far, but that's probably a 10,000 word post for another forum.)
It is essentially the opposite of dyslexia, from a neurological view, and has prevented me from finding and keeping full time employment. Simple tasks that most people intuit, such as telling if someone's joking, are beyond me. I can't tell if that girl's talking to me because she wants to have my children, or if she's a bit lost and I just happen to look like someone who knows what he's doing.
It's sufficiently severe to the point that I don't trust my memory for anything. Did I put my keys there? I could have sworn I did but it wasn't there the last few times I looked - at least, I think I looked. Maybe I just didn't look properly. I'll look again. Shit, they ARE there. How did I not see them?
Imagine the emotional baggage you'd get from something like that.
Books are like listening to someone talk to you while you're reading - go back over it, and realise that you did read it, you just can't remember what's written there. Hell, I could get lost a few blocks from home if my key reference point (a mountain) for the city was clouded in and you dropped me off without letting me know where I was.
A lifetime of punishment because one of my parents should have been medicated, and regardless of some self-centred egotist moaning about their culture being destroyed, I would give this shit up in a heartbeat if someone could fix it.
But can it be fixed? I just don't know.
My government's so busy supporting people with physical disabilities that they seem to have forgotten about me. I keep getting told by psychologists and occupational therapists skilled in the wrong areas that I just need to try harder, and that "You'll figure out a way." NO! If I were going to figure out a way, I would have done so thirty fucking years ago.
Growing up she was 'mainstreamed' in public schools but did attend a local school for the deaf when she was in HS. For the most part she's done well for herself. She has very good lip reading and oral skills so she did well around most hearing people.
Many of her deaf friends who weren't mainstreamed usually held menial jobs and received public assistance.
I have a friend who was born hearing, but lost his hearing in both ears due to acoustic neuromas in both ears... and as a result has had a hard time finding work as stuff he did when he could hear he cannot do anymore.
Why not just have deaf art classes where we plug up kids ears and force them to abide by deaf social norms, and watch deaf theater?
Be like my old middle-school German class
My condition does come with a mild upside that some people might find valuable (although I see the downside as far worse). I don't really see much upside to being blind or deaf. But some deaf people, apparently, do. I may not understand, but, so long as no one's rights are being violated, they are free to believe or think or act as they please.
Nonaggression works!
Due to genetics, I cannot see. That is, unless I wear glasses.
That poor leper culture is doomed!
having met some deaf folks I had to activate txting on my phone. I was a hold out for new things. now I am glad I did, and I can still type to them easily.
they don't have cochlier implants and never want them. I have accidentally gotten drunk and forgot they think you have to make eye contact to talk. I stare off and they think I am ignoring when I really am not.
I get their messages on paper or a device, and respond by device or paper.
they do have terrible grammar, but are smart in their respective fields. I like to use the pretense of being deaf to ignore police personally. They do and it is funny every time. "you can't ride your bikes here" (just keep riding and smile at them then don't look back. ) if the friendly officer happens to stop you physically, pull out a little notebook and ask by writing to them what they want
How easy it is for you all to judge from your privileged hearing perspectives.
I see no mention here of the issues and problems that have arisen from CIs.
If you would like some actual facts as opposed to this BS please see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1easy-Tzc0E
There is a transcript below for ALL of you who do not understand ASL (even as a BSL user I can understand about 70% of the information - when have any of YOU even attempted to embrace and understand a minority culture? Oh but you wouldn't have to would you, seen as your lives are so perfect right?)
How dare this thread even be allowed to happen, I feel nothing but disgust for all those who have posted their poisonous comments.
In the middle ages people were persecuted for be LEFT HANDED - it was evil, ungodly, forbidden. I Love the fact that society's ignorance has not changed. You'll be demonising Gay Culture next; all in favour of SOCIETY no doubt. "Is it really ok? Should they have a culture? It's accepted now but I'm kinda-for those fag bashers in Russia, anybody with me?" I'm sure you're all DYING to start your next diatribe.
Cochlear Implants DO NOT enable a hearing person to hear in the same way as we hearings understand hearing. There are still huge gaps - one of the main issues with CIs is the assumption that 'they are like us now', so special measures in place are removed and the child has no support- you got that super sized hearing aid strapped to your skull THAT MEANS YOU'RE NORMAL NOW.
The problem is Deaf kids are being implanted then treated like 'the hearings' the 'normal' kids. Left to suffer, too afraid to ask and let down by their education because schools do not fully understand that they will be fighting to be 'equal' and feeling utterly inferior for the rest of their lives.
YOUR IGNORANCE IS A DISGRACE.