If people who can hear want to join in with the deaf culture and community, nothing is stopping them. If deaf people want to join in with mainstream culture, there is something stopping them. Let's give kids that choice.
I know that if I was born deaf but could hear through advances in medical technology, I'd probably be more interesting in joining in with deaf culture in some way, and using my full set of senses, help out others.
Program was crashing in weird ways, not leaving a core dump behind, and not even displaying a stacktrace in gdb.
The problem was I forgot to write an empty constructor for a simple C++ class I wrote. It compiled and linked fine and even appeared to run fine at first, but it would spontaneously die for no apparent reason.
Somebody on Facebook is arguing that giving an 8-month-old a cochlear implant is bad because it robs him of deaf culture.
This is not actually as ridiculous as you might think it is. There is significant portion of the deaf community who feels this way. Or at least, believe it is something parents need to take into consideration when thinking about cochlear implants.
Somebody on Facebook is arguing that giving an 8-month-old a cochlear implant is bad because it robs him of deaf culture.
This is not actually as ridiculous as you might think it is. There is significant portion of the deaf community who feels this way. Or at least, believe it is something parents need to take into consideration when thinking about cochlear implants.
And they're completely full of shit.
Not really. Cochlear implants carry real risks and don't actually allow you to perceive music and voices like a person born with hearing does. There are legitimate reasons to say, "No, they can choose later, for now they're learn how those of us born this way do these things." Also, there's something to be said for the insane value of learning sign language before gaining hearing and English if your entire family is deaf.
There are legitimate reasons to say, "No, they can choose later, for now they're learn how those of us born this way do these things."
Cochlear implants are damn-near useless if you don't get them early enough (definitely no later than 5 years old, and even that is too late for most children). You'd be able to discern the difference between "sound" and "not sound", but probably not much more than that.
On the flipside, there are also legitimate reasons why parents might want to give their children cochlear implants as early as possible, long before they are old enough to make the decision themselves, because it heightens the chance of them having closer to "normal" hearing.
But the point is, it's totally not a black and white issue.
That's curious. I've heard of adults with deafness getting cochlear implants. How does that work?
They were either capable of hearing in some form at some point in their lives, or they likely can't understand very much. The woman who was on Ellen a while back was hard of hearing and had lots of speech therapy before and after the implantation. Rush Limbaugh was originally hearing and went nearly deaf before he got his implant.
Every once in a while photoshop reminds you how vital it is you continuously hit ctrl+S by crashing right after you've done something cool.
I save after EVERY single action I do. In fact I tend to do this with everything. Add a sentence to a Word Doc? SAVE! Add a semi-colin to come CSS? OMG SAVE!!! That is my OCD though process on saving stuff. My hand ctrl+S's constantly without me thinking about it. (It's pretty obvious I've been shafted enough in the past by not saving :-P)
On the flipside, there are also legitimate reasons why parents might want to give their children cochlear implants as early as possible, long before they are old enough to make the decision themselves, because it heightens the chance of them having closer to "normal" hearing.
But the point is, it's totally not a black and white issue.
It isn't black and white, but one shade of grey is clearly significantly darker than the other.
To those born deaf, getting a cochlear implant early on offers them an option of developing hearing in a way that they otherwise could not. On the other hand, the option of choosing to participate in deaf culture is one that will (or should) always be open to them.
Moreover, even before the child makes their own choice, they can still be taught sign language and can participate in deaf culture as well as non-deaf culture.
Here's my thought process (as spurious as it might be): We call disabilities disabilities for a reason. Now if I have the chance to correct a disability I'm going to. To me the argument against cochlear implants sounds like someone telling an amputee not to get a prosthetic (assuming it can replicate normal functionality) because having the prosthetic means thy cant participate in amputee culture. Or attach the argument to a kid born without a limb. It doesn't hold water in my mind because the flip side of that is now the kid can participate in normal culture. And that, to me, seems better than telling my kid "Well I wanted you to fit in with the deaf people."
If it were me and my kid, I'd get the cochlear implant. Every time.
The CI issue is a lot more complicated than some people in this thread seem to think. I highly recommend reading the "controversy" section of this Wikipedia article at a minimum.
Well I just spent three hours getting insulted by the general public. They do not pay me enough for this shit.
Find a job where you get paid to insult the public.
I wish. I need the stupid job for christmas but man there is nothing that makes you feel better than having twelve year olds screaming abuse with no way of talking back to them.
I work at a camping store that hired me specifically because they wanted someone with experience trekking abroad and who could recommend stuff for the DofE/Ten Tours groups. What I ended up doing was being dressed as Shawn the Sheep for no reason and having to hand out leaflets. All the while cool teenagers got to hurl insults at me. All this because the area managers kids like Shawn the Sheep and think that it is festive. I am debating quitting this job.
Comments
I know that if I was born deaf but could hear through advances in medical technology, I'd probably be more interesting in joining in with deaf culture in some way, and using my full set of senses, help out others.
The problem was I forgot to write an empty constructor for a simple C++ class I wrote. It compiled and linked fine and even appeared to run fine at first, but it would spontaneously die for no apparent reason.
Me alone: $128
Add my wife: $398
Add my newborn: $363
Reality:
Add newborn: $681
I can't afford that much of a cost increase, and I can't afford not to have the baby covered...
Fuck
Yes, I know it's a forum for a podcast don't give me that look.
But the point is, it's totally not a black and white issue.
[Edit] Ninja'd by Mike AGAIN.
At any rate, saying hearing culture is inherently "better" than deaf culture is inherently kind of supremacist and awful.
Edit: This thread is now Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
To those born deaf, getting a cochlear implant early on offers them an option of developing hearing in a way that they otherwise could not. On the other hand, the option of choosing to participate in deaf culture is one that will (or should) always be open to them.
Moreover, even before the child makes their own choice, they can still be taught sign language and can participate in deaf culture as well as non-deaf culture.
We call disabilities disabilities for a reason. Now if I have the chance to correct a disability I'm going to. To me the argument against cochlear implants sounds like someone telling an amputee not to get a prosthetic (assuming it can replicate normal functionality) because having the prosthetic means thy cant participate in amputee culture. Or attach the argument to a kid born without a limb. It doesn't hold water in my mind because the flip side of that is now the kid can participate in normal culture. And that, to me, seems better than telling my kid "Well I wanted you to fit in with the deaf people."
If it were me and my kid, I'd get the cochlear implant. Every time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant#Controversy_in_the_culture