Hearing people's view of CI

I am hearing, but have a high interest in ASL and deaf culture due to the fact that I have a cousin who is deaf, and because I have a love for learning languages in general. I have found that many hearing people have misinformation about the CI. When I tell them that it doesn't actually restore hearing, they look at me like I have 10 heads. When I tell them that it is not the same as the way we hear, again I get the look. Many people refer to CI as a "miracle". While it is great for someone who makes the choice to get implanted, it doesn't make you hearing--you are still deaf. Many hearing people don't understand this and it frustrates me. Also, I had someone tell me that if deaf people choose not to get CI they are choosing not to engage with the world and isolating themselves...because, of course the only way to engage with the world is through speech and hearing *eye roll*

It is nice to finally see a hearing person that "gets it" about the CI's. I have had many of these same experiences and it is really frustrating (only I am deaf with CI's.) Good job.

And for the record if I see someone refer to my CI's as a "miracle" one more time, they better hope they have a good dentist. lol

Amen! It makes someone functionally HOH. That is NOT hearing by a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNG shot! And I say that as someone with a conductive loss.

There have been all these videos circulating on facebook lately of infants being implanted and everyone being like OMG THEY CAN HEAR NOW!!!! Yes, their brain can process sound electronically, but your child is still deaf. People jump to CI when they have a deaf child because they think that the child cannot possibly lead a happy, fulfilling life without them. I'm not against CI, I just think that people should be able to make their own decisions regarding them. My friend who's deaf got her first CI when she was 8; she was old enough to know what was going on and had a say in the decision. My cousin who is deaf is 25 and thinking about getting the esteem implant when and if she can afford it. Again, it's her decision and no one else's.

This past Friday, I brought in the nucleus monitor headphones for my fellow drumline members to hear what i hear. and they were amazed, they were like: "holy SH**T, that's how you hear? i can barely hear even with the CI!" and most of them said it sounded like a recorder--electronically of course. So then after that they changed their behavior towards me and actually made sure i could understand them.. the best part about it is, my percussion director, he started using sign language to communicate with me! i'm so excited about that, his sister is even an sign language interpreter!! my heart is beating fast! i taught him a few signs, and i even gave him his first sign name.

Unfortunately my front ensemble technican doesn't make the effort to come half way with me to actually try to make sure i understood what he's saying. I try to encourage him to use sign language but he uses his hands to make it look like a letter like G, he would make one hand a C and the other with the leg of the G. Kind of bums me out a little bit. Because i have a lot of people working hard to learn ASL for me to help me out except my pit techinican. oh well, i'm getting off topic.

Also, I had someone tell me that if deaf people choose not to get CI they are choosing not to engage with the world and isolating themselves

I hate people with this view. I refuse to even associate with them.

yeah, well, mostly those are people who were never exposed to the deaf and Deaf, so naturally they would assume so.

Education is the key to everything, people should be educated, then things would improve.


Remember AIDS scare? Until society hasn't got widespread education on the subject,
people were hysterical about HIV, AIDS and homosexuals.

Once they got educated, they calmed down.

And so is with everything.


I don't see one single TV show about deaf and Deafness.
The last time I saw was about Sound and Fury, part one.

what a pity.

Fuzzy

Audiofuzzy said:

I don't see one single TV show about deaf and Deafness.


The last time I saw was about Sound and Fury, part one.

what a pity.

Click to expand...

There has been quite a few. For instance, the TV show, "Switched at Birth".

And there's Sue Thomas F.B.I. Not that I'm promoting it by any means.

I would call CI as a hearing aid since when it's off, the person can't hear, therefore he/she is still deaf. As for deaf people including me who don't want CI, we are still normal people. What's more, in the real world, there are many hearing people who are isolated from others so what's the difference? OP, the people you talked to are obviously dumb.

Hearing people have no clue!! I was exactly the same!!!
They assume that, if you bother to do surgery and all, it's because it will solve your "problem" (because of course, for any of us hearing people, to loose hearing suddenly would indeed be a problem - so we can't immediately understand that this is not true for everybody).

People need to be educated. I get pissed off too everytime people ask me about my son and why I don't get him a CI (which of course happens quite often), and when I say I'm not going to, they give that funny look at me and say "But... but... So.. you don't WANT him to hear??? Why???" Like it was ME making him deaf :roll:

Makes me want to say "If you want to know why you'll have to ask upstairs, it was not my idea after all!"

Instead, I usually reply "I want him to be happy and self confident, and no surgery can give you this, nor hearing does". Then I usually try to explain briefly aaaaall of my reasons and my pov, and they usually end up saying "Oh, you know what, you're right"

Be patient, please. Think about hearing not wanting to repeat for deafies and how bad that is... Repeat, repeat, repeat. Hearing people CAN learn, well, at least most of them. They're only uninformed, if not misinformed.

messymama said:

Be patient, please. Think about hearing not wanting to repeat for deafies and how bad that is... Repeat, repeat, repeat. Hearing people CAN learn, well, at least most of them. They're only uninformed, if not misinformed.

Click to expand...

Mass media like TV broadcasts is powerful but none of it talks about CI yet so that's why hearing people are still clueless. When and if a nationally TV show discusses CI , it would tell viewers to remember that CI doesn't automatically make a deaf person to become hearing and it is just a hearing aid.

I got my implant, 11 years ago. I didn't get it cos I wanted to be "normal" It's just a tool to hear. Plus my CI is only on at work :P so most of the time I am totally deaf even with my HA.

shel90 said:

Also, I had someone tell me that if deaf people choose not to get CI they are choosing not to engage with the world and isolating themselves

I hate people with this view. I refuse to even associate with them.

Click to expand...

ditto. it shows me how much knowleges they are like they have no contact with deafies before. How did they know about isolating themseleve? did they try ? no.

Switched at Birth, Sue Thomas... - those are only movies, not quite realistic at that.
What REALLY are they educating about ?


What is needed, is proper semi- documentary about what it's like to be deaf/HoH
and how much all assistive devices including CI really help, and how.

Only then the attitude will change.

Fuzzy

Audiofuzzy said:

Switched at Birth, those are only movies, not quite realistic at that. What REALLY are they educating about ?

Click to expand...

It's a TV show, not a movie.

They are educating the audience about the deaf and Deaf Culture. Obviously you don't watch it.

Audiofuzzy said:

What is needed, is proper semi- documentary about what it's like to be deaf/HoH

Click to expand...

"Through Deaf Eyes" is a documentary.

stephaniep21 said:

I am hearing, but have a high interest in ASL and deaf culture due to the fact that I have a cousin who is deaf, and because I have a love for learning languages in general. I have found that many hearing people have misinformation about the CI. When I tell them that it doesn't actually restore hearing, they look at me like I have 10 heads. When I tell them that it is not the same as the way we hear, again I get the look. Many people refer to CI as a "miracle". While it is great for someone who makes the choice to get implanted, it doesn't make you hearing--you are still deaf. Many hearing people don't understand this and it frustrates me. Also, I had someone tell me that if deaf people choose not to get CI they are choosing not to engage with the world and isolating themselves...because, of course the only way to engage with the world is through speech and hearing *eye roll*

Click to expand...

The same could be said for HAs. :P

coolgirlspyer90 said:

This past Friday, I brought in the nucleus monitor headphones for my fellow drumline members to hear what i hear. and they were amazed, they were like: "holy SH**T, that's how you hear? i can barely hear even with the CI!" and most of them said it sounded like a recorder--electronically of course. So then after that they changed their behavior towards me and actually made sure i could understand them.. the best part about it is, my percussion director, he started using sign language to communicate with me! i'm so excited about that, his sister is even an sign language interpreter!! my heart is beating fast! i taught him a few signs, and i even gave him his first sign name.

Unfortunately my front ensemble technican doesn't make the effort to come half way with me to actually try to make sure i understood what he's saying. I try to encourage him to use sign language but he uses his hands to make it look like a letter like G, he would make one hand a C and the other with the leg of the G. Kind of bums me out a little bit. Because i have a lot of people working hard to learn ASL for me to help me out except my pit techinican. oh well, i'm getting off topic.

Click to expand...

If hearing people could "hear" the way we hear, they wouldn't be yammering on and on about how amazing it is that we can hear. It's a type of hearing, but it's as comparable to normal hearing as kissing a good friend on the cheek is to actually making love with your soulmate is.

stephaniep21 said:

There have been all these videos circulating on facebook lately of infants being implanted and everyone being like OMG THEY CAN HEAR NOW!!!! Yes, their brain can process sound electronically, but your child is still deaf. People jump to CI when they have a deaf child because they think that the child cannot possibly lead a happy, fulfilling life without them. I'm not against CI, I just think that people should be able to make their own decisions regarding them. My friend who's deaf got her first CI when she was 8; she was old enough to know what was going on and had a say in the decision. My cousin who is deaf is 25 and thinking about getting the esteem implant when and if she can afford it. Again, it's her decision and no one else's.

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Steph, you should tell your cousin to learn ASL and get involved in the deaf community, and get a hearing aid. The esteem is just a PR story.