Is AGBell Assc. Destroying Deaf Culture? You Decide
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For a long time the Deaf Community had accused AGBell Association of maintaining hidden agenda including surreptitiously trying to wipe out the deaf culture. The founder, Alexander Graham Bell, was a strong supporter of the eugenics movement and for some time held the president position of a national eugenics society. For further information, check on the link below the post, The Shameful Legacy of AGB: Hitler. Consequently, his organization, AGBADHH had a long history of suppressing American Sign Language and to this day, practices audio-verbal therapy (AVT), now known as Listening and Spoken Language (LSL). AGBell Association had steadfastly insisted maintaining a respect for ASL as a language. There was no evidence of AGBell Association in any overt involvement of attempts to eradicate all deafness in the recent years
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Well, that is, until now. I will present the nature of the relationship between AGBell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and Deafness Research Foundation, known for its research on curing deafness. The agenda of Deafness Research Foundation is evident by a certain pdf Death of Deafness. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6710472/death_of_deafness_intro.pdf This is published by US Hear, a campaign spearheaded by the Deafness Research Foundation. In this pdf, certain statements were made:
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let’s talk about conquering deafness
Since ancient times, deafness has been part of the human condition, but no more.
One of every 1,000 American newborns is profoundly deaf (11 babies a day) and needs a cochlear implant. Another two of 1,000 need hearing aids (22 more babies)
the solution is to lead a cultural shift-away from assuming that deafness and lost hearing are inevitable and toward ending all deafness- creating the habits and expectation of life-long hearing health
Research: Fund the search to understand how the brain and genes govern hearing, and find better ways to overcome all forms of deafness and ear disorders, including tinnitus
A search on the site of AGBADHH reveals a relationship with DRF
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So close was the relationship that a Research Symposium provided by AGBADHH 2010 Convention in Orlando, FL was sponsored by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Deafness Research Foundation http://nc.agbell.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=924
Deafness Research Foundation was also recognized as a Bronze Sponsor for its sponsorship of the 2010 conference.
Bronze Sponsors
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An oral advocacy organization found by an eugenicist had been sponsored by an organization whose agenda is to eradicate all deafness, including Deaf Culture. I don’t know about you, but this leaves me with a sinking feeling.
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Incidentally ISD has several Hear Indiana members, whose parent organization is AGBADHH, serving on the board. It seems a clear cut conflict of ideologies between ISD and Deaf culture and Hear Indiana/AGBADHH.
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AGB’s Shameful Legacy- Hitler http://www.mishkazena.com/2007/03/30/agbs-shameful-legacy-hitler/
.
For a long time the Deaf Community had accused AGBell Association of maintaining hidden agenda including surreptitiously trying to wipe out the deaf culture. The founder, Alexander Graham Bell, was a strong supporter of the eugenics movement and for some time held the president position of a national eugenics society. For further information, check on the link below the post, The Shameful Legacy of AGB: Hitler. Consequently, his organization, AGBADHH had a long history of suppressing American Sign Language and to this day, practices audio-verbal therapy (AVT), now known as Listening and Spoken Language (LSL). AGBell Association had steadfastly insisted maintaining a respect for ASL as a language. There was no evidence of AGBell Association in any overt involvement of attempts to eradicate all deafness in the recent years
.
Well, that is, until now. I will present the nature of the relationship between AGBell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and Deafness Research Foundation, known for its research on curing deafness. The agenda of Deafness Research Foundation is evident by a certain pdf Death of Deafness. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6710472/death_of_deafness_intro.pdf This is published by US Hear, a campaign spearheaded by the Deafness Research Foundation. In this pdf, certain statements were made:
.
let’s talk about conquering deafness
Since ancient times, deafness has been part of the human condition, but no more.
One of every 1,000 American newborns is profoundly deaf (11 babies a day) and needs a cochlear implant. Another two of 1,000 need hearing aids (22 more babies)
the solution is to lead a cultural shift-away from assuming that deafness and lost hearing are inevitable and toward ending all deafness- creating the habits and expectation of life-long hearing health
Research: Fund the search to understand how the brain and genes govern hearing, and find better ways to overcome all forms of deafness and ear disorders, including tinnitus
A search on the site of AGBADHH reveals a relationship with DRF
.
So close was the relationship that a Research Symposium provided by AGBADHH 2010 Convention in Orlando, FL was sponsored by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the Deafness Research Foundation http://nc.agbell.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=924
Deafness Research Foundation was also recognized as a Bronze Sponsor for its sponsorship of the 2010 conference.
Bronze Sponsors
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An oral advocacy organization found by an eugenicist had been sponsored by an organization whose agenda is to eradicate all deafness, including Deaf Culture. I don’t know about you, but this leaves me with a sinking feeling.
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Incidentally ISD has several Hear Indiana members, whose parent organization is AGBADHH, serving on the board. It seems a clear cut conflict of ideologies between ISD and Deaf culture and Hear Indiana/AGBADHH.
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AGB’s Shameful Legacy- Hitler http://www.mishkazena.com/2007/03/30/agbs-shameful-legacy-hitler/
June 13th, 2011 at 10:45 am
thank you connecting the dots and spelling out the truth
knowledge is power
Douglas Baynton’s Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign Against Sign Language also details Bell’s work to try to destroy the pillars of Deaf culture and ASL in his social darwinism thrush (Lane’s When the Mind Hears and Mask of Benevolence and even Crouch and VanCleve’s A Place of Their Own – also spell out AG Bell, the man, and the organizations adverse legacy on Deaf culture and ASL)
YOU Mishka Zena have shown how all roads lead to AG Bell the association in CURRENT times
Thank you
its a pity and it ain’t pretty
peace
patti
June 13th, 2011 at 10:52 am
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June 13th, 2011 at 10:53 am
A friend whose wife teaches at a Maryland public elementary school told me that AGBell donates money to the school. “Donate to a public school?!”, I asked. “Yes.”, he replied.
June 13th, 2011 at 11:10 am
“no evidence”,
I’m afraid I don’t understand. What does AG Bell’s donation to a public school have to do with anything?
June 13th, 2011 at 11:11 am
And by the way, MZ – outstanding blog post. Thank you for explaining further on this PDF. IMHO, this is extremely difficult to deny.
June 13th, 2011 at 11:35 am
I vehemently oppose to the writing notion of this statement:
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and needs a cochlear implant.
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That’s like forcing the parents of poverty level to give up all the savings to invest in a child, in one scenario. Yes, I know it’s a fallacy to pinpoint to the poor parents, but nevertheless, the principle remains the same.
Thanks for the article.
June 13th, 2011 at 11:38 am
I KNOW they are trying because of my Deaf son’s custody case over his Deaf daughter vs. her hearing mom.
June 13th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Wow… the maintenance of “hearing health.” So deafness is a medical thing, a pathology. If you turn this into a “medical problem” then who can possibly deny all the “heroic efforts” to eradicate it as if it were some sort of disease.
June 13th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Hi Mishka Zena,
Long time no see!
Yes your article has shown us that we’ve a strong case against AGBell.
We’ve known its agenda that it’s been against us, the Deaf human beings since 19th century! A. G. Bell even called us, the race that he wanted to get rid of. That is an absolute genocide. He believed in his own gods, the pseudo-scientific eugenics.
Thanks for sharing this with us. I hope we’ll make a brilliant strategy that will benefit our Deaf Community in a long term.
I made my article (May 30) http://deafchipmunk.com/?p=120
Deafchip
June 13th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
DeafPUNDIT
AGBell, by donating money, is influencing the school program to adopt an AVT-only teaching philosophy.
June 13th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
I still remain unconvinced that the “Boogedy Man” exists. Now, I cannot speak for AG Bell or Milan in 1880…but as for the AGBell Association today, what comes to mind is the quote, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. In other words, they aren’t out to get us all specifically, but they are actively trying to implement changes in deaf education which will not work for every deaf child in my opinion. In another vlog, I saw a statistic that mentioned that there were 59 million people with hearing loss worldwide and 80% of those were in developing countries. While I don’t know about the reliability of the sources for those numbers, I do wonder what does AG Bell plan to do with people in developing countries that cannot afford a CI or don’t have medical coverage for it? Not to mention the time and expense for extensive AVT sessions?
June 13th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
I have 2 Deaf kids who are 5th generation of Deaf family originating from Syria and for all we know they could be 10th or 20th generation… Highly likely that my kids will have Deaf kids, and that they’d have Deaf kids… just genes, nothing more. Hence we (minus me, a victim of rubella anyway) are a minority within a minority.
The problem with eugenic-ism… it carries a bad rap. When we think of finding the genes that cause cancer, yup, let’s get rid of them–because they cause pain and dying; that’s where eugenics come in. But trying to change the gene that defines the person (for an instance, remove the genes that cause brown eyes… ), that’s where I draw a line, yup. The powers above decided to call deaf genes as “recessive” “disabling” etc… which gives them a right to “fix” “remove” etc. Hence to low expectations of us.
One thing I know for sure… whenever people try to remove the genes that make people deaf, the genes will ALWAYS find their way back. One can’t play God.
June 13th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
One more comment to leave…
A short while ago during one of the bedtime chats, I asked my daughter if she ever found herself pregnant with a baby and the law required that she be tested for any recessive genes and if found that the embryo had deaf gene, the law would require that she aborted her baby… would she go with it? She looked horrified at what I asked and she said no, she’d keep it a secret until it was too late for the abortion. Then she asked who decided which gene was good and bad? I sadly said men.
June 13th, 2011 at 2:40 pm
J.J.
You asked “I do wonder what does AG Bell plan to do with people in developing countries that cannot afford a CI or don’t have medical coverage for it? Not to mention the time and expense for extensive AVT sessions?”
My answer is that they did it to us(oralist) in USA that failed their ideology program and wipe us under the rug that no one knows about it.
June 13th, 2011 at 2:55 pm
We must be careful not to ascribe malevolent or outrightly eugenic intentions to AGBADHH or its related agencies. This could result in us being labeled extremists.
They are stubbornly idealistic do-gooders on a mission to eradicate deafness and mounting an almost messianic outreach. “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions” perfectly describes this.
As people out to save the world from the curse of deafness, as politicians out to save money by cancelling deaf people any way they can, or as citizens unable to face the reality that THEY are the ones that put roadblocks in the way of deaf people, they are a humongous challenge to meet head-on.
The hell of it is that sometimes oralist methods work to some extent and that will always be used to refute what we as Deaf people say. Their need to consider us as a medical problem and to believe that we can be cured is very powerful.
Keep on telling the truth and keep challenging the denial-driven industries such as AGBADHH and the CI-AVT organizations. We are real people, we are Deaf, and we have SEEN IT ALL.
June 13th, 2011 at 3:08 pm
Mishkazena..
Question for ya, what do you hope to achieve by writing this post? How is it going to help the sign language community?
June 13th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
What do I expect to accomplish? we will see better with the light on than being in the dark.
How is this going to help the sign language community?
Knowing the truth, whether we like it or not, is always helpful. How is this going to help them? That’s an excellent question. I don’t know since I cannot answer for the Deaf Community. Only they decide what to do with the information, not me.
June 13th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Candy,
Question for ya, what do you hope to achieve by writing any of your posts? How are any of your posts going to help the sign language community?
John,
I don’t know about brushing stuff under the rug. To me it’s more like how our educational system (in the United States) has failed many children and was exacerbated further by the “No Child Left Behind” policies. It’s like how politicians out of touch with the general population make decisions directly affecting the said population.
June 13th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
J.J.,
LOL. I love your comment to Candy!
Anyway, I do agree that the US educational system is broken in general for all populations. However, I think the Deaf Education has been broken way before the general education system broke.
And I think the misconceptions that deafness can be 100% eliminated and MUST be eliminated, plays a huge factor in why the Deaf Education system is broken.
I mean, the trend in general education is that one size does not fit all. Yet that isn’t reflected in how people approach Deaf Education, despite IDEA. That PDF shows extremely well their mentality that one size MUST fit all deaf children.
And that’s wrong, and that should be called out upon. Parents have the right to raise and educate their children as they please, and I’ve said this over and over again – they cannot make appropriate decisions without having all of the relevant and appropriate information. We know that it is not happening right now in Deaf Education because of the intense favored bias for the medical view of deafness.
June 13th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Karen, how true that “Deaf genes will always find their way back.” Most Deaf genes are recessive so can remain hidden for generations before popping up by surprise in families with no known deaf relatives.
Even if all Deaf babies were sterilized at birth, those hidden genes still remain in the parent population. The only way to combat this is to treat it AFTER it occurs… CI, stem cell therapy, even gene therapy–which still does NOT change future genetic transmission.
So it is inevitable that we will continue to have Deaf children born for the hundreds of years. Add to that infections and accidents and aging, and we are looking at a considerable number.
Will this mean ASL is here to stay? That’s harder to tell in view of the current determination to do away with characteristics of deaf people. It will depend more on determination of people to hang on to it.
June 13th, 2011 at 6:49 pm
How hard is it for the folks to comprehend sign language does provide access at almost 100% guarantee as opposed to rolling the dices by playing Crap with the auditory assistance exclusively?
Aw, crap… it’s really no brainer, me believes.
June 13th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
i agree. but speaking and hearing are like holy grails to the hearing people. hopefully they will find out the truth about asl being beneficial, even assisting them in acquiring speaking and listening quicker than speech and listening alone.
June 13th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Karen,
How true! Several descendants of my father’s Dutch – Flemish ancestors, who founded Nieuw Amsterdam (now NYC) in 1600s, were deaf in 1650s and some of their later deaf descendants have reappeared in the 19th and 20th centuries — one of them was a deaf grandson of the First Lady Elizabeth (Kortright) Monroe and some of them were prominent educators of the deaf (!).
Meaning what? Their deaf gene has lived for more than 350 years. Albeit not in every generation, it will never die!
June 14th, 2011 at 12:31 am
I’ve read this ongoing A G Bell versus culture issue for a few years from over the pond. Rather than continuing to waste energy fighting these people, it may be more productive to put that energy into forwarding deaf culture. I can understand the need for an yin to the yang, but not to make it an end in itself, sometimes it’s easier to just focus on the positives that are around as averse to the negatives. I feel the same about Milan, it does not provide deaf today with an suitable focus they can relate to. Ditto A G Bell last century. You can only win by educating the people you want to, by cooperation and inclusion, you have to bring A G Bell into the deaf arena and discuss issues without prejudice, and keep your cool, i.e. unless you want an endless argument with no winners. I rather fear some just enjoy the war….
June 14th, 2011 at 4:46 am
deaf gene and ASL will not go away. people will make it smaller so they get to oppress them. stripping their rights because theres not enough people (when they made sure there won’t be enough)
June 14th, 2011 at 6:13 am
to answer Candy’s question about what the point of ur entry is – it seems to me your entry, mishka zena, is in response to Candy’s demand over at her place that u show a connection between AG Bell Association (and its chapters HEAR indiana being one of them) to the Death of deafness series by the Deafness Research Center and ta da u did
kinda ODD that she dont even remember her OWN initial questioning of ya and comes over here to cast doubt and suspicion on what u is doing
just classic attempt to discredit and deflect when as JJ noted – she should be asking HERSELF as to her own intent and purposes for her own blogging. getting mighty obvious she is
so ill copy and paste her question to u over at her place so that stuff is self-evident here in the place of truth:
Candy permalink*
June 12, 2011 07:08
mishkazena..
Can you show me how this organization supports the PDF? Do you have links that point to it? I’m willing to bet not all members of Hear Indiana nor AGBell support that PDF.
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re: her bet. so what. seriously that is just her wiggle room attempt re: ‘not all’
one is too many dear on a board that only has one Deaf bi-bi person and three new who are pro oral / aural ONLY Hear Indiana rah rah rah folks
and did u see what the WHO has to say about linguistic and cultural rights – ya hoo me says
from alison bryan of the UK
WHO World Report on Disability (PDF, 349 pages). WHO recommendation: “Promote Deaf children’s right to education by recognizing linguistic rights. Deaf children should have early exposure to sign language and be educated as multilinguals in reading and writing. Train teachers in sign language and provide accessible educational material.” (page 227).
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789240685215_eng.pdf
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2011/9789240685215_eng.pdf
karen mayes – what u wrote is VERY important. What u have given ur daughter – a sense of self-love, respect and acceptance will serve her for all the days of her life. Thank u so much.
Miska Zena, Deaf pundit, finlake, Dianrez, JJ, John, Deafchip, Judy, BEG, Dianrez etc thank u for being part of the truth campaign
(karen ur comments reminded me of an entry i wrote a MILLION YEARS ago before i ever knew u but had seen some of ur comments here and there and valued u and ur family’s Deaf genes and right to be. if u care to see: http://handeyes.wordpress.com/2007/12/28/hfeb-heads-humanity-towards-a-black-hole/)
again mishka zena – thank u for all u do and are. we need ya
peace
patti
June 14th, 2011 at 6:19 am
we have to remember medical don’t think about the parents mental health when their baby are born *gasp* flawed being Deaf that is. the parents are really lost in their own emotions and does not have time to really sink this news and medical field are pushing parents to make decision right away.
Feeling of guilts remorse and hopeless they have are profound! The last thing they need is people shoving informations at their face. The best thing we Deaf can do is be there and show them there is HOPE for their child. Not all at lost.
Everyone is so busy shoving information but forget the parents feeling…
June 14th, 2011 at 6:21 am
I speak as a former mental health therapist who have to counsult parents… just by looking at me as a Deaf mother with 2 Deaf daughters are doing well gives them ohhh there is hope for my child.
June 14th, 2011 at 8:31 am
can Deaf culture survive after death of deafness ? I think so !
Yiddish is our model
June 14th, 2011 at 9:25 am
Mishka Zena, Karen Mayes,
Hello there, how goes? Nice blog. It is nice to see evidence out there. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
I was sick of people attacking AGBell. I was and still am no fan of that organization.
Now, I know there are two sets of attacks. “Attack” with an attitude that turns me off, and “attack” as in “exposing” them with the truth, while using words carefully. That has my respect and enables me to listen without being defensive. You and A Deaf Pundit did just that. Truth be told.
Why was I defensive in the first place? I feel that I was attacked too as they spoke against AGBell. Although I am not an AG Bell, but could my Oralism be a result of AGBll? Maybe.
As for Karen Mayes first comment. Interesting.
I do wonder if curing deafness, with CI will cause future generation to become hearing? Suppose your great-grand father had CI as a baby, then your parents had CI, then you had CI as a baby. Then your child has CI when a baby. Will your child’s kid then become hearing, from then on? I doubt that.
I support parents choice of CI, but it does not permanently cure Deafness in Deaf Generations.
That is what came to my mind as I read your comment.
Blessing you all.
~BBF
June 14th, 2011 at 9:58 am
please don’t make any personal references or dig at another person here. pls address to the topic.
asking questions are good. this way we can clarify our positions better.
June 14th, 2011 at 10:39 am
To quote something that JPR said, I’m entering with a fire-suit on, as I know I’m gonna get flamed.
“An oral advocacy organization found by an eugenicist had been sponsored by an organization whose agenda is to eradicate all deafness, including Deaf Culture.”
AGBell Association’s convention has a component called the Research Symposium. Yes, Deafness Reasearch Foundation (DRF) is one of two sponsors of this symposium; it is, after all, a private research foundation that knows the latest research going on in hearing and balance disorders. DRF doesn’t sponsor AGBell, it sponsors AGBell’s research symposium for its national convention. DRF’s mission is to find a cure for deafness, for its “Hear US” campaign reflects that goal.
However, that’s not to say in the same breath that “Hear US” campaign is AGBell’s mission. AGBell Association’s mission is to promote Listening and Speaking Language (LSL), and that has been the association’s work for many years. Nowhere on its website or in its public relations does AGBell Association discuss a “cure for deafness”, which is DRF’s mission.
You and DP are equating DRF and AGBell’s mission as one and the same, the “death to deafness” mission. These two organizations have DIFFERENT missions.
Just because one organization sponsors the research symposium of another organization’s convention, does that make the host organization complicit, agreeing with the sponsor’s mission? Not necessarily. Many organizations help promote one another, but don’t necessarily adopt each other’s missions. At least both host and sponsor are transparent about the sponsor’s role. Unlike what happened with DBC and the role of Deafhood in its org.
I’m left wondering here…
Are some ppl confusing DRF’s mission with Alexander G. Bell, the man, who espoused a similar goal?
June 14th, 2011 at 10:58 am
ann c. you won’t get any flaming from me here. if agbell association hadn’t removed its bias against asl and deaf culture, this won’t be an issue for me, not at all. we will need to agree to disagree about agbell associaton’s deep bias against asl and deaf culture. i’m cynical now. i thought like you, candy, and others.. until the last few years. what i’ve witnessed both publicly and privately since i started blogging, what i’ve heard privately… so am i reacting to this piece of paper alone? no. I’m seeing the overall picture. i don’t know what to say. because had anyone told me this five or three years ago, i wouldn’t believe them.
anyway no flaming from me
June 14th, 2011 at 11:03 am
ok we are seeing disagreements here. tensions are rising. this is to be expected. after all, this is a highly controversial topic. some people don’t see the same things others do. some will feel defensive. no problem. i get that.
again please
No personal attacks. Address to the topic alone.
If there are personal attacks, then I will close the comment section. I hate personal attacks, but even more I hate is the moderation of each comment, deciding.. is this ok? is this too personal?
so please do me a favor. don’t refer to other commenters at all. address to the topic alone. or i’ll save myself the trouble and close the comment section.
disagreements ok. personal attacks not ok.
peace, everybody
June 14th, 2011 at 11:32 am
Hi Ann_C,
You’re right in the sense that the DRF and AG Bell’s missions are not the one and the same. However, I would like to point out that their missions overlap greatly. To me, their missions are irrevocably interwoven.
Nonprofits that share very similar missions, goals and objectives often partner together, sponsor each other, and work with other entities that share their views.
After all, not very much would be accomplished if an organization decided to partner with another entity that they had *nothing* in common with, would it?
June 14th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Mishka,
I took great interest in what you wrote below:
i’m cynical now. i thought like you, candy, and others.. until the last few years. what i’ve witnessed both publicly and privately since i started blogging, what i’ve heard privately… so am i reacting to this piece of paper alone? no. I’m seeing the overall picture. i don’t know what to say. because had anyone told me this five or three years ago, i wouldn’t believe them.
Care to expand on this? Am curious as to what other evidence you may have or seen or experienced? If it’s personal…I understand. No big deal
.
-JJ
June 14th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
MZ,
“if agbell association hadn’t removed its bias against asl and deaf culture, this won’t be an issue for me”
Witnessing and hearsay are not irrefutable proofs that AGBell practices a hidden agenda. I’m not discounting what you’ve seen and heard, but you surely realize that is not enough to prove what you claim in your statement.
DP,
You’re entitled to your opinion. But an opinion does not make for an irrefutable proof.
Neither does claiming that DRF and AGBell sleep in the same bed make for irrefutable evidence. I’m saying this not in the spirit of criticism but in the spirit of encouraging better sleuthing. You can do better.
June 14th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Examine the outreach of an organization and you will see its true nature. Examine the phrases and expressions that they use, and note the one-sided slant of them. Also note that their PR and advertising to the public and parents is over-optimistic and is intended to lead to the conclusion that deafness is manageable to the point of invisibility, if not cured.
Also examine what they say about their history. Nowhere do they admit failures or shortcomings, nor do they address criticisms that their past clients have leveled at them. It is as if they never have made mistakes and that people who had less than positive experiences do not even exist at all.
Finally, recently federal business and medical oversight departments have brought the CI industries under examination, and unethical dealings were exposed. So were deficiencies in manufacture leading to enforced suspension of operations. Without federal intervention, these agencies would have covered up and continued doing business as usual.
This may be cynical, but business usually takes priority over the wellbeing of the consumer. Deaf people have raised concerns and condemnations for decades and even now are not being taken seriously enough despite federal investigations. Perhaps one day we will be heard IN FULL.
In the meantime, the minority has to fight to be considered in matters that concern them and to point out the cyclical tendency of denial to come back in new words, new shapes, but still DENIAL that Deaf people exist and have articulated needs and problems; and that aids, CIs, hearing-based approaches, etc. are still an imperfect solution no matter how they are pitched, packaged, supported and enforced.
Continuing to believe the beneficial and charitable images of AGBADHH and related industries is simply burying one’s head in the sand. They are BUSINESSES and make their money off d/Deaf people and their hopes to become as good as Hearing, and the public who wants to believe that deafness will somehow go away. Without their unqualified trust and continued patronage, the system collapses.
June 14th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Ann_C,
I would beg to differ with you on one thing – witnessing things can be and is considered as evidence. After all, witnesses testify all the time in courts about what they see and hear.
Hearsay on the other hand, isn’t considered evidence. We agree on that one.
Now, I’m not saying that you can prove something solely on one witness’ evidence. That would be absurd.
But given so many people’s experiences with AG Bell; their attempts to squash ASL from being shown in the media (Pepsi, Through Deaf Eyes at the Smithsonian, etc); the organization’s ties to other entities, (and not just with DRF), that want to eliminate deafness 100%, and so forth… I do think that makes for a very compelling case.
And I think if people took a *genuine* look at the history of what AG Bell and their collaborators have done, they would see that for themselves as well.
Obviously it isn’t enough for you and some others. That’s fine. There will always be people who disagree, no matter how overwhelming the evidence is.
June 14th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Many of us know in our heart of this whole shebang about how AGBell operates.
And we use our brain to explain what our heart knows but how each of us explanation is according to how our brain was nurtured during our childhood education…so different of how each of us went through in the “system” according how our parents set us up to be. We all grew up so much different in the “speaking and listening” ideology from so many different “so-call experts” that we all grew up in so many different pattern styles of how we were nurtured.
Basically, we all are like bionic computers programmed by so many different progammers assuming they thought they knew what they were doing…we are the by-product of the “still on going experiential” to reach the achievement to succeed to be hearing but the Deaf education is still dismal as of today.
One way to stop this insane ideology about how to nurture the Deaf babies and children in schools into what we are still continue to be for over 100 years when they took our bilingual identity away starting at 1880 Milan is to tell the truth about AGBell’s flaw of their ideology but the amount of money they have, they continue the dogma because greed overpowers the morality.
Please understand why many of us are still trying to stop this insanity of curing Deafness and accept our desire to be bilingual so we can have a normal life.
John
June 17th, 2011 at 5:12 am
[...] Mishka Zena has brought forth some evidence on the connection between the AG Bell Association and the Deafness Research Center, which aim is for a Death of Deafness – see http://www.mishkazena.com/2011/06/13/is-agbell-assc-destroying-deaf-culture-you-decide/ [...]
June 24th, 2011 at 4:42 am
I support parents choice of CI, but it does not permanently cure Deafness in Deaf Generations.
October 16th, 2011 at 4:02 am
Decide=choice? I don’t support parents choice of CI because it is totally bribe from the stakeholders on cochlear implantations! What if perhaps or maybe the Stakeholders on Cochlear Implantation do NOT want the parents to know about this
“Mayo Clinic Study Finds That Multiple Surgeries and Anesthesia Exposure Before Age 2 Can Be Linked to Learning Disabilities”?????
http://osixmedia.com/newsdeatail.aspx?News=1173831
Thank you very much for allowing me to express my thoughts. (not my decide + not my choice! OK?)