Goodbye to all.

Today I have nothing new to present to readers. I plan to end this journey. I want to focus my learning on face to face life experiences and plan to close this blog. Over the past few months I have taken on a journey to explore the deaf culture and different views on the cochlear implant. This journey has been beneficial to me in my line of work, and I plan to continue to learn just no longer through this blog.

Going into this blog I wanted to learn more about the deaf culture so that I could serve the deaf community. After attending deaf meetings, communicating online and reading articles I now have a better understanding of any interactions I may have with the deaf community. There is still plenty to learn but this is a start. I plan to take up another class to strengthen my signing skills in hope of being able to fully communicate with a person who is deaf. With this skill I will be able to help the deaf community and lessen misinterpretation of information. The deaf community will not only have someone to advocate for them but also to understand them and the culture. This is a major part of being a social worker. A social worker should understand and be sensitive of one's culture and beliefs, and the deaf community draws my interest.

With my recent poll I am glad to say I believe it was successful. I did not expect as many responses that I received, and am happy with the results. Though there are many different views on the cochlear implant I hope and believe that most people will be respectful towards each other and their decisions. Receiving the cochlear implant is a controversial issue, but with the results posted on previous posts I believe that society is adapting to the new technology available just as they have to IPODS and computers.
With all that I have learned I will now continue to a new journey and end this one. I have enjoyed this experience and am looking forward to the next. Let life continue.

Kristina

Poll Closure

There has been some updates on the poll I posted. For those of you just now tuning in I created a poll to see what people within the deaf community have to say. I wanted to explore opinions about the cochlear implant.

The question I posted was, "Does receiving the CI make a person less part of the deaf community?" The new results are: 20 people Strongly Disagree (68.97%), 6 people Disagree (20.69%), 1 person is Undecided (3.45%), 1 person Agrees (3.45%), and 2 people Strongly Agrees (6.90%). The results have changed since I last posted but tonight I want to touch on what voters actually had to say. In some questions in life what people have to say may not matter, but I think the voice of who is voting is most important.

I had many posts to my question. Posts that I agree with reflect on how evolved a person is within the deaf community and their culture. A comment that created a thread that I agreed with states:

you're still deaf with the cochlear implant. it shouldn't change your presence in the deaf community if you do get a CI. i have one and i'm still active in the deaf community.. even though i don't wear it anymore - i only use it when i want to listen to music and/or when i'm home alone without the dogs.

So any hearing aid or CI user isn't really Deaf?

I marked "strongly disagree". I think it is about language, culture, beliefs, and perspective, not about what you wear on your ear.
agreed. a lot of senior citizens have some degree of hearing loss due to old age, but are they automatically in the deaf community? i don't think so. it's totally a cultural thing. -Anakin

I feel this quote reflects my own feelings. Rather a person is part of the deaf community or not has nothing to do with receiving the cochlear implant; it has to do with rather or not the person is active in the deaf community. I believe a person is defined within the deaf community by their involvement, though some people may disagree and say it only has to do with being deaf and having no assistance in hearing.

One of the members of the deaf community named Rockdrummer made a comment that I really appreciated. As mentioned in previous posts there are many different views within the community and how those views are changing.Rockdrummer states:

As with many things in life it depends. From my experience I see the d/Deaf culture as a diverse one. Really not much different in that regard than other cultures. With that said you will have some very hard core people that may outcast a CI users and you will have many that really don't care one way or another. As time goes on it does appear that the CI is more acceptable. It is when you are talking about implanting babies where there is still a lot of controversy. At least that is my opinion based on what I have experienced.

Rockdrummer brought up an important controversy regarding the cochlear implant. As I believe the person should make the decision to receive the implant. However, the major topic is, should a parent make the decision for a child to have the surgery to receive the implant? I personally believe the parent should be able to make the decision for the child, but should also make sure the child is active and embraces the deaf culture/community.

The implantation of the cochlear implant will remain part of the deaf community rather liked or not. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and these are just my views. I enjoy learning about other peoples views and wish to hear any readers thoughts. With these poll results I am happy to say I believe this poll was successful.

poll results

Hello all,
I thought I would mix it up a bit and connect with the deaf community online so that I could share this with followers. I created a poll along with a post where people could write comments and vote. I was able to hear from a few members of the deaf community and get a new insight on the cochlear implant. I wanted to hear from deaf people to see if they truly cared about receiving the cochlear implant as I was taught in class and read online. With this post and poll I was able to have a new insight on the deaf community; I enjoyed learning from these people that were not in my zip code.

The question I posted for people to poll was:
“Does receiving the CI make a person less part of the deaf community?”

I received a response from 17 people. Out of this group of people 13 of them ( 75%) said that they strongly agree that a person is still part of the deaf community despite receiving the cochlear implant. 4 out of the 17 (25%) said they agree, while 1 person (6.25%) said they strongly disagree. To make it more interesting I kept the polls public, so that I could research each person’s account to see if they are deaf (deafie), hard of hearing (HOH), or able to hear (hearie). After reviewing the accounts out of the strongly agree section, 5 people have not listed rather or not they are deaf, 7 people say they have some sort of hearing problem, and one person is hearing. For the agree section only one person states they are deaf, while three people do not say rather or not they have hearing problems. For the strongly disagree section the person does have a hearing problem. This information seems to contradict everything that I have read on website and learned in class. I am going to keep the poll up and see if more people answer the question.

This information tells me there are different views on receiving the cochlear implant as there is with any other issue. To some people receiving the implant is a problem, but compared with this poll the majority is not bothered by it. I do realize the problem with this poll is that only 17 people answered and in addition I am unsure who is deaf. The poll may change if more people responded or if they were all verified as deaf/ HOH. Being that my post has had 270 views I am going to assume that those who did not answer probably did not care about the cochlear implant and therefore refused to participate, or they thought I was ignorant. I guess opinions can go either way. :)
For now I will wrap this up, but I just wanted to share this with my readers. Next week I will touch on what some of the people posted as comments after they voted, but if anticipation is eating at you here is the website.


Cochlear Implant Poll

my view on cochlear implant

Many of you are wondering where on the spectrum I am when it comes to the cochlear implant. I strongly believe that receiving the cochlear implant should be the choice of the recipient. I do not believe receiving the implant separates a person from the deaf culture or community they may have been a part of before the surgery. In my sign language class, I was taught a deaf person who receives the implant is a traitor of the deaf community, yet I do not agree with this view.

Even though there are many risks that go along with receiving the implant I believe the decision should be up to the person who is debating the surgery. An argument that was presented in a recent peer setting was, when does it become necessary for society to make decisions for people when risks are ignored? I am not fully convinced that society should be able to make decisions for people as long as they do not make a conscious decision to harm them self or others. However I am open to learning if anyone has any examples I should consider.

For those of you who read my last blog you are probably wondering how I can ignore the risks that are presented to the deaf culture/hard of hearing who is considering the implant. For me it is simple, as stated before there are many risks in life; if in the place of a deaf person I personally would desire to hear my child's voice, water splashing on the beach, or even as simple as a lawn mower.

From the people I met at deaf events I have not come across anyone who is strongly opposed to the cochlear implant. Though, I have heard of stories from teachers and acquaintances of both negative and positive views. This past Monday I attended a deaf meeting and met up with one of my previous teachers whose first language was ASL (American Sign Language). She is very aware of the deaf culture and feelings on receiving an implant. One story she shared was a deaf child born to a hearing parent. The parent refused to let the child learn ASL, and made the decision for the child to receive the implant. The child had an easy time adjusting to the new experience and was very happy to have the implant; the child later embraced the deaf community/culture once old enough and even learned ASL. In return peers and others in the community embraced the person who received the surgery. The parent had a hard time accepting the deaf culture, but once the child adopted the culture the parent found a new appreciation. The teacher stays in contact with this person, and so far has had no problems with acceptance.

Even though there may be circumstances where people are not so welcoming to the cochlear implant, so far I have not met anyone with a story to tell. A major argument that I have been presented with is hearing parents deciding to have their deaf child implanted. One point of view that I found in an article by Kristin Shafer was that the cochlear implant is consider ok from the deaf view, as long as the person made that decision. Kristin states:

“Cochlear implants are often seen by the larger hearing population as a cure for deafness; many find it unfathomable that a person would choose to be deaf if an alternative existed. It may come as a surprise, then, that there is a controversy over the device within the Deaf community, especially in regards to the implantation of young children. Many Deaf people believe that implanting children before they are old enough to make the decision themselves could, and likely will, result in the end of Deaf culture. However, it is believed that the earlier it is implanted, the better a device will work; from the hearing perspective, the more likely it is that a child will learn to speak.”

This statement gives an idea to those of you who are unaware of why there is a controversy. I do agree that the person should make the decisions for them self, but when it comes to the young child I believe the parent should make the choice. I want to hear other people’s opinions on this topic and hope readers will join in on posts.