Essay On Cochlear Implants

Everybody faces challenges and uncertainties and a daily basis. Fortunately, for hearing people their troubles can be trivial. For those who are in the Deaf and hard of hearing culture, however, challenges and uncertainties are not relatively trivial. Over the past several years, the Deaf community has been enterprising for culture awareness. Historically, the media have played an important role in the portrayal of deaf individuals. “Switched at Birth” is a television show that has helped shed some light on the Deaf culture. "Switched at Birth" has tackled many autistic beliefs toward Deaf people that are false and ignorant such as them not being able to drive, raise kids, and have jobs.

“We have the opportunity to create real change and promote policies at the state and federal level to ensure a rise in educational equality for deaf children nationwide”, states a representative of the National Association of the Deaf. The campaign consists of many advocates from all walks of life, including actresses, poets, lawyers, and

They believe that once your born deaf you should stay deaf because that’s the way it should be. Getting a cochlear implant doesn’t detracted from being a part of the deaf culture when the person is taught his or her original culture. Hearing people think that not giving the implant to their child is child abuse. It is not child abuse it’s a personal choices, if the deaf community were not supposed to be deaf deafness would be nonexistent. There are two sides to that don’t understand one another’s reasoning for cochlear implants.

Heather Whitestone was born on February 24, 1923 in Dothan, Alabama. Whitestone was the first woman with a disability to be crowned Miss America 1995. Her mother, Daphne Gray, was a seventh grade math teacher and her father, Bill Whitestone, was an owner of a furniture store. She is the youngest of three sisters. She is married with John A. McCallum, a hearing man and they have four children’s.

The writer of “Sweet Nothing”, Stephen Sachs, portrays the all too familiar conflict in a family. However the not so familiar family setting, where the mother and son are deaf, and the husband is hearing.

“All of the Children of silence must be taught to sing their own song.” This is one of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet’s most famous quotes. Gallaudet lived a very normal childhood, but had a very eventful adult life. Gallaudet was very intelligent child for which led him to go to Yale University at the age of 14. After his college career he met Alice Cogswell, who he did not realise would help him change the lives of all deaf and dumb people for years to come by making the first school especially for them. Most people did not realise that he actually had many health problems during his life. He suffered from nightmares, “nervous attacks”, self inadequacy, and lung problems along his journey for equality for all people. Even with his struggles, Gallaudet was influential all his life from before he met Alice, while he knew her, and even after he died.

Members of the deaf community share common values, traditions, norms; and, most importantly, they share a language. Deaf people do not think of themselves as being handicapped, disabled or impaired and do not perceive themselves as having lost something. The deaf community does

Deaf children with Deaf parents usually develop a strong sense of self and know who they are. While many Deaf children with hearing parents grow up and have resentment for their parents and professionals. They usually they feel as if they weren’t exposed into the deaf world enough. Both parents face considerable challenges in raising their children. They face their children being “educated below their capacity, employed below their capability and viewed negatively in the hearing world because they are deaf” (28). As well as the challenge of many professionals encouraging put in hearing aids, making their child “hearing impaired”. Hearing parents are usually unsure of what to do, and end up following the path the professionals recommend. The book really helps emphasize the importance of not doing that. Instead, exposing a the child into the Deaf community would be the best option. They’ll be welcomed with wide arms, and it will help them feel most true to themselves. It doesn’t require any special measures to change them.

After reading Chapter 1 of “Through Deaf Eyes”. I was not surprised by the facts that were introduced in Chapter 1. Some of these things that were talked about and discussed I have experienced in my life as a deaf person with cochlear implants.

I watched Sound and Fury, a documentary that came out in 2000, centered on the complications of getting the Cochlear Implant, and how Deaf and hearing communities can differ upon the topic. Particularly within one family, brothers along with their wives and parents have a tough time deciding if their Deaf children should undergo such a procedure. They all travel to visit families that are hearing with children who aren’t learning ASL because they have the implant. They visit a Deaf family whose 10-year daughter is the only person in the family to get the implant. They also visit schools focusing on speech to help Deaf children who wear hearing aids and/or got the Cochlear Implant, and visit a Deaf community with a school focused on ASL. Each

We must disregard the population who have had both positive and negative reactions to the surgery to understand the surrounding controversy, which does not focus on the efficacy and success of the cochlear implant on the recipient, but rather on the deaf culture and whether the use of such a device imposes a societal standard which marginalizes the hearing impaired and categorizes them as “disabled”.

Coming into the light consists of a Deaf person’s journey towards finding their Deaf identity. As we learned in class, some Deaf people struggle to find their identity due to not knowing the resources available to them or having bad experiences with hearing people. This causes them to have a little d but when they find who they truly are they develop a big D and embrace being Deaf. As for the visual scream, it is when someone makes a visual gesture that seems like they’re making a loud sound but there is no sound with it. This is often seen in silent films or done by Deaf performers to add emotion to their performances.

The medical view challenges fundamental cultural values of the Deaf culture by undermining the importance of establishing a Deaf identity. Since its priority is to cure “Deafness” using medical interventions, young Deaf infants often do not often have a say in the auditory recovery treatments that will ultimately define their ways of life. Doctors and scientists alike are trained to think of ways to return the body to its most natural, fully equipped state and the inability to process auditory information is alarming because it deviates from their definition of a normal, healthy human being. Although the intentions of those in the medical field are not necessary maleficent, but the way in which they explain options to parents with a Deaf child

The reason why I chose to do my paper on Black Deaf Americans was because of my Granddad and my cousin. My Granddad lost his hearing later in life, and my cousin was born deaf. When my granddad lost his hearing, I wasn’t born. He did not lose his hearing totally, so he was able to use hearing aids to help him hear, and he never connected with the Deaf Society. Many years later my aunt first child a girl was born deaf, but the family really did not know she was deaf until the baby was two years. Twelve years later, due to family problems, my mom ended up temporary custody. While my cousin was in my care, I had no idea what the Deaf Culture consist of, how many problems, confusion and conflict these individuals go through just because of their deafness.

Would it be acceptable if the preimplantation genetic diagnosis provides the opportunity and hearing impaired parents choose to have a child with hearing disability? Some people draw parallels with intentionally harming a baby, e.g. depriving the child of his/her hearing sense . Thus, they say, it is unethical. Some people argue that by choosing the child with disability it harms the society . However, ethical considerations for this problems becomes difficult when it is difficult to decide what is a disability. Deaf community often argues that hearing impairment is a culture, thus it should be permitted to choose a child with the same culture as them3. Therefore, one