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.
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