"When taking a closer look at the Deaf Community, I found a powerful sense of community and identity, which is unfortunately highly exclusive and riddled with fear. There are too many judgmental voices unwilling to take a liberal stance in regard to the cochlear implant and hearing parents. These radical voices are overpowering those moderate voices, at least in respect
to many hearing parents whose deaf children will not need to become part of the Deaf Community." Posted by Jodi Cutler Del Dottore
"There are too many judgmental voices unwilling to take a liberal stance in regard to the cochlear implant and hearing parents." Posted by Jodi Cutler Del Dottore
My response:
This statement of yours is in fact a judgmental statement itself. If you weren't being judgmental, you would be able to put yourself in other people's shoes and see what we see. You don't have to agree but you should want to be able to see where we are coming from and know we have very valid points of concern.
Not all parents are happy with their children being implanted with CIs. Some of them do feel regret. I will interview some of these parents on video soon.
I've already seen how surgeries on babies and children can lead to heartbreaking stories. That’s why I am having a hard time supporting the idea of cochlear implants, and I never will support implantation based on what I know now. Yet I will always embrace these Deaf children with CIs—even adults with CIs.
It is not like we're making this up and feel that we're playing a game in order to upset people such as yourself. We research the issues, listen, and analyze and still we as Deaf people (who oppose the idea of implanting CI on children) are very much uncomfortable with the idea.
I hope some day you will understand our intentions for Deaf children. I love being an ASL-Deaf person. I have a hearing family. I work in hearing world. I would never trade my Deaf-being for anything else.
I found pride in being Deaf when I was 25 years old. I do not want to see children go through what I went through in life until a late age. I sincerely hope one day you will understand our intentions.
I had no language the first six years of my life. I remember that my mom had to drag me out of the living room to begin practicing my hearing skills with the radio in kitchen, and she trained me to speak everyday. Whenever I tried to use my hands, my mom put them down. We couldn't communicate until I was six years old. That's when she took me to a school that included sign language. From there on, my mom and I learned to communicate. Once I had access to sign language, my education finally began.
I know as a child what it was like not to be able to sign. I intend to continue this campaign because I care about Deaf children.
To assure you, we will always welcome you in our Deaf community, even when we have different perspectives about CIs. Look at me, I visit your blog even though we disagree. I read and learn from differing perspectives on CIs.
The important thing is that I truly hope that you will allow your son to have access to sign language and the Deaf community.
Have a good day…
Aidan
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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9 comments:
Aidan,
you did not have cochlear implants at thattime. you were a profoundly deaf child tryingto learn how to listen and speak. I feel bad for whatyou hadto endure.
But the kids we are talking is of the current generation. They are hard of hearing and almost hearing.
It is like comparing apples and oranges.
anna s
Hi Aidan,
I really appreciated receiving your thoughtful comment. I know it's not an easy argument, nothing about this is easy and I have no problem agreeing to disagree. The important thing is to keep the dialogue open and open-minded...thanks, Jodi
I would like to SEE the children with CI to learn ASL and be a part of Deaf community. I can't image if they won't let them using ASL or be in any of deaf events or anything in Deaf community. It breaks my heart!
aidan,
i hear you. your intentions are true and i accept you for who you are.
advocating asl for all deaf children is something you truly believe in and your intentions are true from your heart.
i am just uncomfortable with your choice of words such as coupling electric shock therapy and cochlear implants in one headline among with other headlines showing that cis are bad. i feel we all have been moving past that and focusing on how we can work collaboratively so no deaf child will fall behind.
i have personally known a lot of deaf people who grew up in residential schools from as early as preschool graduating wil dismal test scores. They grew up with ASL.
It is not ASL, it is not CI, it is not total communication . . . it starts with the parents. The big IT of not succeeding mostly lies with the parents.
Waving my flag for peace.
Hello Jodi,
Thank you so much for your comment. I guess we are communicating better than others. Maybe they are not used to seeing two people who can get along, even if they have way different perspectives on things, and who are also able to have an open dialogue with an open mind.
the comments from Jodi's blog:
Hi AnnaS and others:
I've never met you personally and I do not know you. Please do not speak for me or put the words into my mouth about who I am or how I feel. Your interpretation about me is coming from you. It is *your* interpretation, which doesn't necessarily mean it is factual. I want to assure you that I know myself much better than anyone else does. I trust that I can speak for myself. Thank you.
AnnaS, please read my comment again. Please try to have an open mind.
Let me repeat myself by saying that I *have* interviewed parents of Deaf children with CI's. Those Deaf children with CI's that I interviewed were born in 90's and 2000's.
To be proactive in the area of human rights means having passion and being a caring person. I can understand why you might misunderstand and misinterpret my passion as being anger. Please correct your mistaken interpretation and know that I am not like what you describe me as being.
"The definition of HUMAN RIGHTS refers to 'the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled'. Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and equality before the law. Social, cultural and economic rights, such as the right to participate in culture, the right to work, and the right to education are also sometimes thought of as human rights." (Wikipedia)
Like United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 1, which says: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
Maybe this definition of what I am doing might will help you to understand my intentions and who I am a little better.
My experiences are similar to the experiences of other Deaf people who have CI's, but we differ in that they have had surgery and I have not. I am sorry that you feel that my testimonial is unworthy and should be disregarded. I'll leave it up to others if they want to try to see the experience of being subjected to the oral philosophy through my eyes.
Karen:
"the key is to be open to all possibilities on the journey and find that path that fits.. "
Are you telling me that we should take a huge gamble on Deaf children's lives by playing around with a method that may not fit them? Did you read about and hear about the history of oralism vis-a-vis the history of ASL? ASL has been here about 200 years. It's had a wonderful impact on the lives of Deaf people who've had full access it. I have never heard of a case where ASL has hurt a Deaf child's education. ASL guarantees success for a lifetime.
Based on research and historical studies, oralism and artificial communication systems have changed back and forth over the years and have never been stable. The people who support those methods are still struggling to find a system by which they hope to "fix" Deaf children. Their goal is to make them hearing. Right?
As for the medical establishment, in their eyes, a deaf child will not be fully 100% perfect until the child is a fully hearing. The point is that this child will never reach full hearing status, because the child is deaf and will always be deaf. That's why devices are constantly being upgraded and are changing all the time.
Aidan
Mishkazena wrote:
http://blog.deafread.com/mishkazena/2008/01/11/a-mom-of-ci-childrentheyre-not-listening-to-us/
A Mom of CI Children:They’re Not Listening To Us. “I had no language the first six years of my life. I remember that my mom had to drag me out of the living room to begin practicing my hearing skills with the radio in kitchen, and she trained me to speak everyday. Whenever I tried to use my hands, my mom put them down. We couldn’t communicate until I was six years old. That’s when she took me to a school that included sign language. From there on, my mom and I learned to communicate. Once I had access to sign language, my education finally began.”
Aidan Mack
http://deaffilmblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/re-there-is-no-need-to-hear-to-listen.html
Hello Everyone:
I feel honored to be featured on Misha Zena's blog. *LOL* I will never use my interviewees as competitors to show or prove that everything I said is true. Only time will tell.
I find it interesting that some people gave an instant response to my experience about not having a language the first six years of my life. They decided whether that is good enough or not. I actually am able to look at the whole picture. I have already done research on CI's, interviewed people, and read extensively on the subject. I've met Deaf people with CI's who have shared their experiences with me. I also met some parents of Deaf children with CI's. Sharing my experiences will show that I've been there and done that.
I also find it interesting that parents often speak for their implanted Deaf children, seeing as though there were comment makers who tried to speak for me and describe who I am based on your interpretation of who I am. So how can I trust you after I witnessed you attempt to speak for me based on all the assumptions that you hold?
Here is what the FDA says about the benefits and risks of having cochlear Implants. Notice the list of risks is longer then the list of benefits:
Here is website: FDA's Website
Two day ago I called a cochlear implant program at a particular hospital and asked the receptionist about hearing screening tests. I had to repeat my questions from time to time. I began to wonder whether or not there was something wrong with me. After ten minutes, she admitted that she has CI's and sometimes she has a problem understanding what people say on the phone. I asked her how old she was when she lost her hearing. It turns out that she lost her hearing when she was 33 years old. I thought to myself: She is a receptionist and she is the first person on the frontline that the parents first meet when they come in for the second hearing screening test. I hope that parents will think to ask this receptionist how old she was when she became deaf, rather than just automatically assume that she was deaf since birth.
I also found out that hearing screen testing is in every auditory-type department, and that includes cochlear implant departments. So it is easier for parents to be refered to a cochlear implant department than it is for them to be able to get access to information of American Sign Language and Deaf people comprising a linguistic minority, instead of being a disability group.
I also learned that otolaryngologists first encourage them to use hearing aids. Having surgery is very risky and all doctors will try to avoid the surgery and consider it as being a last resort. If hearing aids fail, then they will be told to get cochlear implants regardless of whether there are risk factors involved. I asked the receptionist: "What about sign language? If babies are doing well with sign language, then they won't have to undergo the risk of getting cochlear implants." She immediately responded by saying: "I never tell anyone that sign language is a bad thing."
Imagine, it's the front desk. It's the very first time parents meet a deaf person and they are assuming that all Deaf babies who have never heard sounds before will be hearing and speaking like this receptionist eventually. That's scary!
I am not comfortable with the idea of cochlear implant surgery itself, cutting up a baby's tiny head and banning them from being exposed to sign language.
Hi AnnaS…
Do you realize that most students who are ex-products of oralism didn't become exposed to ASL until a later age? The new teachers of these students then have to spend inordinate amounts time teaching them everything that they had missed when they were in the oral program that caused the jag in their learning.
Deaf children are struggling to learn English because they were denied the opportunity to learn a natural language as a first language at an early age and were only able to learn ASL later in life.
After firing all the teachers who supported ASL from Deaf schools, teachers who are not ASL supporters take their place. Just as Scott K. Liddell said in his book: Grammar, Gesture, and Meaning in American Sign Language, "A Teacher believing ASL was not a language would view such a child as, tragically, without language. This has an obvious effect on how the teacher will interact with the child, what can reasonably be expected of child, perceptions of the child's intelligence and readiness to learn, and so on." The third reason is that there are no ASL classes at Deaf schools because these schools do not recognize ASL as being a bona fide language, even though it already been recognized by linguistics as being such. There's too much red tape involved in getting it recognized.
I never met a Deaf teacher at any school I atttended until I attended Gallaudet University. I was in awe when I met Deaf teachers who are superb at the skill of writing English, which is something they are able to do because they had ASL as a first language.
Any students who were exposed to ASL at very early age will do very well in learning English as a second language, or any other language they choose to learn. For example, Deaf children of Deaf parents tend to have strong skills in writing English compared to Deaf children of hearing parents. This is because deaf parents start to communicate with them in a visual language right after they are born. Ella Lentz, Raychelle Harris, Roz Rosen, Ben Vess, Barb DiGi, and Bobbie Scoggins all have Deaf parents. Such is the case with them also with many others. While hearing parents are too busy finding the right method for their Deaf babies, they have a hard time communicating with them because they aren't using American Sign Language.
Look at hearing babies who are exposed to sign language: This morning I saw in the news that there was a girl who was maybe 9 to 12 months old, and she can associate English words with particular signs and is able to identify English words through signing. Awesome. I suggest you do some research on the topic of hearing babies who sign.
For Jodi:
I am confused a little bit about what you said in your comment: "The only thing I can't accept is being called judgmental, having lived through the pain of consciously deciding to concentrate on an oral approach despite acknowledging, respecting and loving his deaf identity and all of the incredible history associated with it." In another blog you actually did judge us by writing: "There are too many judgmental voices unwilling to take a liberal stance in regard to the cochlear implant and hearing parents." Are you telling me to just forget about these Deaf children with CI's who are not succeeding as expected? Are you telling me it's not worth hearing what these parents of Deaf children with CI's have to say about their negative experiences with Cis?
I guess I took it wrong when you said that we could have an open dialogue and be opened minded, because you ended up claiming that I supposedly attacked you on your blog, and you used the phrase: "Mack Attack". The irony is that you had previously written: "I really appreciated receiving your thoughtful comment." Now all of sudden you claiming that I attacked you.
Have a great weekend...
Thank you,
Aidan
Aidan,
It was Mack Attack? a question, not a phrase, and the response was Nope...dialogue. I assumed you would get what I was trying to say after the comment I left on your blog. Your experience has made you passionate in your views, as has mine and I look forward to hearing more of what you have to say...won't always agree with it, but I will listen:) The last sentence about you that I wrote in my blog was heartfelt. You weren't the only one who perceived the blog as an attack, next time I'll try to be clearer - but if I write you a comment like the one I did, I mean what I say, remember that. Jodi
Hello Jodi, thank you for clarifying this. I really appreciate that. Thank you, Aidan
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