How Does The Cochlear Implant Affect Deaf Culture

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.

Inside deaf culture is a very strong book written by carol Padden and tom Humphries in this book authors have tried to give a tour of the most important moments that has shaped the Deaf culture.

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.

For a Deaf Son is a documentary about Thomas Thranchin, who was born deaf to hearing family. His father, a filmmaker, produced this documentary to offer an intimate look at how parents of a deaf child make decisions. The documentary is compiled together with interviews from audiologist, families of children with hearing loss, other expert in the field, as well as home videos of Thomas. Thomas was discovered to be profoundly deaf at the age of one and could only hear high frequency sound. This meant that with hearing aids on him, he could acquire speech and language with therapy. The other discussion that Thomas’ parent had to make is whether to educate their son in sign language versus strictly verbal speech. Both Thomas’ parents have different opinions on teaching him ways to communicate. The beginning of the movie, his parents had decided to enroll Thomas in hearing school so that he could learn to communicate with the hearing world that his family lived in. His mother also thought that by enrolling him in a teaching based classroom supported by sign would be an easier route for Thomas considering that he was deaf. Thomas’ father had then begun his research to figure out ways to unlock Thomas’ speech capacities and the outcome of those choices. The documentary

Growing up or becoming deaf may cause people to not achieve very much throughout their lifetime or it could give motivation to achieve great things. For example, Heather Whitestone was deaf throughout all her life. People did not think she was capable of accomplishing big things, but she proved them wrong (Bates). Commonly people will think they will not accomplishment much because they are deaf, and often they are wrong. Even though someone has major disadvantages, they can do whatever they set their mind to.

The story of Lynn Spradley’s journey is for every parent who believes that their child isn’t normal. I learned a great deal about what it truly means to be deaf from this book. Reading this story brought out much emotion as the story progressed. Lynn’s parents Tom and Louise reaction of every parent’s worst thought when having a child. Everyone believes that there child is going to be healthy and fully functioning ready to be a part of the world. Not many consider and are ready to handle the fact that your child may have disabilities. Tom and Louise are confronted with a problem that they know nothing about and to make it worse they are living in a time when the facts and technology surrounding deafness are misconstrued. Deaf like Me is a tale

Through the deaf eyes is a film about what is like to be deaf; it also tells us about the history, as well as challenges deaf culture has faced. It speaks about Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc the creators of the first school for the deaf, also deaf clubs, and people today who have changed perspectives of the deaf community. Gallaudet University was the first environment where deaf community can come together and begin their history and culture teaching deaf children how to speak would benefit them more in the future; however that was not the case, and many thought it was a waste out time as they got older. They feel that they should have focused on sign language, so that they can learn more instead of spending years on learn to

My view while watching the documentary was what I had expected it to be. I found that I actually already knew a lot of the information discussed in the film, not a lot was new. I still found myself “rooting” for the deaf community. I felt angry when the hearing word made the deaf world believe that ASL was wrong, and felt proud as the Gallaudet University fought to have someone from their world

Have you ever thought why cochlear implants are a controversial issue? Some people tend to say that the cochlear implant is a great idea to give the child a chance in the future while others (a.k.a the deaf world) say that the cochlear implant will only make the child to not be interested in the deaf culture. Well to begin with, a cochlear implant is mainly an electronic device which replaces the function of the damaged inner ear. Unlike hearing aids, cochlear implants are planted inside your head to actually send sound signals to the brain through the device. The cochlear implants will only help the child and not change their identities because there are meant to help the child, improve their future, and to be able to be part of both the hearing

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

This case study suggests when the child gains their self-confidence, the other children are more likely to accept them. Therefore, if the patient is comfortable with the implant and is not self-conscious about it, then the other children will not be as bothered by it. The deaf culture is a set of social beliefs, values, history, behaviors, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness. The main use of communication for the deaf is American Sign Language. The deaf culture is against cochlear implants because they believe that if every deaf person gets a cochlear implant then their culture as a whole will be gone. Sparrow explains, “According to the testimony of many individuals who are members of Deaf culture, it is perfectly possible to lead a happy and productive life without hearing or spoken language” (137). The deaf culture believes that deaf people do not need cochlear implants to fit into society. They believe that deafness is not a disease and does not need to be fixed. With a cochlear implant, it is not used to fix the deafness, it is used to help with the person to give them more of a normal life and to help them have the ability to fit into society

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”.

Learning that people had to protest to get fair representation in the 1980’s seems crazy to me. My first thought was, how could any hearing person ever represent the needs and feelings of the deaf community? Though I understand many people grow up in the deaf community and are hearing, that does not award them the right to understand the struggle of the deaf community or what it’s like actually being deaf. I’m glad to know that every Gallaudet president since the protest has been a deaf president. I’m also very glad I watched this movie, as I feel the history of deaf culture is one few hearing people know, but I think everyone should understand more about a community that lives among hearing people every day, and does not receive its deserve