So I was reading an article today and being the person I am I developed some strong opinions on it. It was an article relating to the lives of the deaf and how the larger percentage of them consider it to be a great insult to be labeled as disabled. This article then later goes on to say that giving cochlear implants to children should be considered child abuse and that 86% of deaf adults wouldn't want to hear even if it was free and find the concept of 'curing' deafness greatly offensive. I'll be honest this stopped me dead in my tracks. I can hear and always have. I can't imagine a world where I couldn't hear my man say 'I love you' or where music didn't play when I got in the car as anything other than dismal. If I were to suddenly go deaf I'd be signing up at every research hospital in the country to make them give my hearing back. Then I started to think, is this simply because I was born being able to hear?
Well the more I thought on it the more I can to a few conclusions. If my child was born deaf I would get them the cochlear implants asap so that they might lead a more normal life. It may offend this particular subculture of the deaf to read this but this is my opinion and as always I enjoy your thought out rebuking. So let's start with communication. If my child is born deaf this makes the challenges of parenting ten fold more complicated. Where as a child born with hearing I could teach them their names and the alphabet what food they do and don't want. How to let me know if they are hungry or tired. If I see them run into the street I can scream for them to stop. I can tell them stories for bed and how to sing songs. Not only that but research I have found shows that those who are born deaf have a much lower reading level upon high school graduation than the average child born with hearing. So if I can't teach my child to read or write, instead I am spending the most important years trying to brush up my own sign and teach it to another then I would be putting my child at a great disadvantage. Also children who are born deaf is less than 1 per 1000. So the odds of my child having a friend they could talk to during school or having someone who understands drops significantly. I'd rather my child be the one with the implant and a few friends than the one who is deaf and all alone.
Also even as imaginary child grew up they would be hard press to find a job that could suit their needs. How do you explain to a child who wants to be a doctor that their chances are a lot slimmer because they can't talk to their patients traditionally. It just seems to me that so much heartache and loneliness could be avoided if people took advantage of technology.
I know they said that deafness isn't a disability but I'd have to argue. If the world had not evolved as much as it has, being born deaf could be a death sentence. Granted being blind could be arguably worse but those I have had the pleasure of meeting who are blind seem to have fared better than those I have met who are deaf.
So I'll be honest I am struggling to understand the argument here that being deaf isn't a disability that can stunt the rest of your life. I think this is because I can hear and the person who wrote the article could hear as well. I would adore the input of anyone who is deaf or has experience with the deaf.
Corset working through her logic,
signing off
