My children are beautiful, they don’t need to hear. My children are happy, they don’t need hearing for that either. Most of all my children are healthy,hearing or deaf, it doesn’t matter.

Some parents would risk the health of their cildren for the possibility of a short list of shallow benefits. Talking on the phone, watching tv, listening to music…

For me, the health of my children will always come first, but sadly, some are more interested in their child seeming normal.

All cultural factors aside, exposing a child to the risks of a cochlear implant is abuse in my eyes.

The problem is not with the Cochlear Implants (CI) as a tool but rather with the inequality and perspective that is unavoidable with it. All of this is perpetuated by the medical view that Deaf people are broken and that they need to be fixed in order to become one of “us”. This is permeated deep in American society ever since the days of eugenics and sterilization during the 19th century.

Imagine yourself being Deaf. You are able to communicate in American Sign Language, you have a strong Deaf identity, you have a culture, and you are part of a community that is tight knit. When you’re looking across the divide, what you see looks appalling and threatens the integrity of your belief that being Deaf is perfectly normal and acceptable for a human being. You can do anything but hear…

You see the medical perspective– you’re less human because you cannot hear or speak like hearing people. Then you see those who got CI’s but failed to reach what society expects of them– “normal” hearing and speech. They become failures as a human being– rather than blaming society for expecting them to reach that ideal, it has a detrimental psychological impact on the individual and the family members who underwent extensive speech training. They think, “Did I work hard enough, did I do everything that I could have done, isn’t there something else out there that might work better, or maybe there’s some hope in the future that I’ll have perfect hearing and speech.” They are undergoing the grieving process and will never really recover from it.

Then you have a hierarchy created as a result of what society imposed on Deaf people. It starts with “normal” hearing people on the top of the hierarchy. Then it goes down the hierarchy based on the person’s hearing and speaking ability. A person’s ability to think and learn doesn’t matter as much.

Even though a person might be profoundly Deaf and not able to speak at all, that person might have a Ph.D. in his field. Yet, that Ph.D. is not respected equally with a hearing person who also has a Ph.D. A Deaf person has to prove more to society that a hearing person would only have to do the minimum to accomplish. There’s a great injustice being done in the name of hearing and speech.

Then there are organizations controlled by hearing people who have a lot to profit by promoting CI’s, oral education, AVT, and anything but American Sign Language and a healthy Deaf identity. They’re like the cosmetic industry taking advantage of ugly people or those with low self esteem about their looks– they will never promote that everyone is beautiful no matter what because it will weaken their industry.

The truth is concealed about the success rate of CI’s even after repeated requests for data and research by an independent firm. Those organizations spread myths which are harmful and insulting to Deaf people. Where are the Deaf people in those organizations? For instance, more than half of AG Bell Association’s members are professionals who have so much to benefit from perpetuating oral education, CI’s, AVT, and all those other inventions which were created because parents of Deaf children are so desperate to have their children speak and hear just like them. Another 40% of AG Bell Association’s members are hearing parents of Deaf children. That leaves less than 10% of the members being Deaf adults.

So when you wonder why there is so much controversy surrounding CI’s, just remember that it symbolizes a system of oppression and injustice that destroys a Deaf person’s healthy identity. It destroys the relationship between a parent and the child.

Hi, I’m a soon-to-be ninth grader and have been implanted since I was almost four. My sibling has also been implanted since she was less than two. The Cochlear Implant is a part of who we are.

Though we initially attended oral schools, both of us have been mainstreamed for as long as I can remember. The mainstream has also made us the only kids with CI’s at school. Though there have been some difficult times, for the most part, my experiences are positive.

Just recently, I joined a First Tee program sponsered by our Deaf Action Center. Though we’re not typical DARS kids, my mom thought it would be a good experience. I felt a lot of compassion for the other kids, they had difficulty communicating with the coaches because they used SEE. I learned a lot from that experience, mainly my gratitude for choices made for me. I am grateful for not needing “additional” help such as an interpreter. I am also grateful for feeling like I was more integrated within our society than the other kids.

Being the only person with a CI at school has made me teach others to become sensitive towards hearing loss. It’s not easy, but there is a need to educate even the teachers. I’m excited because this year, there will be a couple other kids with CI’s who will attend my high school. One of them will be in the same orchestra group as I. I know who I am and what I want.

This past Summer, I had the opportunity to go on a three-day re-enactment of the pioneer trail for my church. We were supposed to walk pushing handcarts for 12-15 miles a day. My mom was totally opposed to this because of my processor. She was worried about damage to the equipment. I refused to not wear it—I don’t like being deaf! Some church leaders offered to have an adult “shadow” me but I refused. I am a teen like all the rest. I did not need special treatment, I wanted equal opportunity to attend. Not wearing my processor is not an option, except when I’m in swim team. My processor has helped form who I am: a reader, a student, a music lover and an athlete. I needed to wear it and finally compromised with mom by getting a gortex cover for the processor. Though I was the only hearing impaired person in a group of 300 teens that did this trek, I SURVIVED! What made me most proud of this experience iw that it proved to me and to everyone else that if I could endure the hardships that we went through in this trek, I could definitely survive anything in life! I got up on the last day and gave my testimony to all 300+people who “survived” the trek (many people dropped out because they could not endure the circumstances). I told them that though many of them were “forced” to attend this rite of passage, I was looking forward to it and actually had to fight to attend. I also told them that I knew that no matter what the circumstances, that I would always be able to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with any of them because I am capable.

I am fourteen. I am a teen who happens to use a cochlear implant. I’m no different than anyone else.

I very strongly believe in pluralisn; therefore, I am not happy to hear about segregation. The segregation fosters more audism. Deaf Pundit has mentioned “civil rights movement” somewhere on this blog. In view of what Dr. Elisabeth Zinser had said to ABC’s Nightline Ted Koppel in 1988 that she had no idea that the deaf community had many problemns, I like DP’s idea and think that the civil rights movement should be formed. Before doing so, the deaf community needs to draw a transparent message.

Oh, language assessment either in English, in ASL or both, depending what language the c.i. child is using. Surely the mainstreamed programs use these assessments to guage the linguistic progress of the c.i. kids, right?

Shel, the classroom dynamics are changing, not just in the mainstreamed programs but also in the Deaf schools, due to the growing popularity of c.i. It had come to my attention that segregations between the Deaf kids and c.i. kids are being practiced, not only in the mainstreamed programs, but also in the Deaf schools. This practice needs to be condemned.