What is the alexander graham bell company?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Holly

Holly

New Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
117
Reaction score
1
Just call me stupid and uneducated...
I know a lot of deaf and hoh people don't like that company, but why? I thought about looking up the information online but I didn't want to get any tainted information. I thought it'd be best to get it straight from the source! Whats so wrong with the AGB company?
 
Did you mean the "Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing"?
 
A.G. Bad is a pro-oral only organization that is extremely biased against signing deaf. It is named for a man that promoted soft eugenics against the deaf. The reason that the organization is not very popular with the deaf is because it does not seek to serve the needs of all deaf, but only those who can claim complete oral success. You might want to check out the threads regarding their stance against Pepsico's recent signed commercial.
 
well in partial defense of AG Bad, I've heard its not too unusual to see
terps at the conferences. However, they are very incredibily audist (ie speech is always the best) They are also incredibly naive about how hard it is, to get a good education at a mainstream school. They are filled with members and "experts" who think that all dhh kids have the sociocultral advantages, of being white and middle class. ...oh and also having good access to good quality health care. So ironic..........they don't realize that the sucess of so many oral folks, depend on good quality health care, but they are anti universal health care.
 
I was AGBell's perfect poster child cuz I was born with a severe bilateral profound deafness and have little access to to the speech banana with my hearing aids. Despite that, I was able to develop excellent oral skills making it possible for most hearing people to understand me. I also learned how to lipread very well but that skill worked the best in one-on-one situations or very small groups of nor more than 3 people. What they forgot was that no matter how good of a lipreader I was and how well I was trained to hear, I had little access to language, communication and information most of the time. I was put in a mainstreamed public school with such minimal accodomations cuz their philosophy was to make me "independent" or so what they believed. What happened was I ended up very angry, isolated, lonely, frustrated, afraid, confused, and eventually depressed during most of my childhood.

When I discovered ASL and the Deaf community and how easy it was for me to connect with others and how the world finally opened up to me, all I could think was "Why?" "Why did AGBell and the medical professionals put me in such an extremely restrictive environment like that?" Was it to make me more like "hearing" and just completely ignore my deaf needs?

Since that discovery and how improved my literacy skills became after learning ASL, I have been very against this philosophy of strictly oral-only with no exposure to sign language. No thanks for me...ASL made my life so much more richer than it used to be.
 
Indeed shel,
I also learned how to lipread very well but that skill worked the best in one-on-one situations or very small groups of nor more than 3 people. What they forgot was that no matter how good of a lipreader I was and how well I was trained to hear, I had little access to language, communication and information most of the time.
Click to expand...




AG Bad assumes that oral speech is sufficent for every and all situtions. It is NOT by far. Oral skills are a good tool to have.......and if AG Bad was more moderate, I'd totally 100% support them. My oral abilty has given me access to the hearing world......and I'm glad I had that training..........BUT I also wish I'd had access to Deaf culture and things like that growing up. Maybe if I had, I could have gotten better grades at school ( b/c I would have been working with a strengh) my social life would have been better. You know, I was fucking tormented in school. I literally had NO social life. Kids made fun of me and assumed I was MR b/c of my "deaf" voice.
 
Thanks guys, I have a good understanding of it now!!!
 
I really wish the AGBell organization would completely shut down.
 
If AGBell Org. was shut down long before ADA was enacted then We won't have ADA law and more rights... *shrug*

see this advocacy news: Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
AG Bell joined the National Disability Rights Center, National Council on Interpreting in Health Care, National Association for the Deaf and many other organizations to “emphasize…the ramifications of denying effective interpretation services to patients who require them.”
Click to expand...

without AGBEll this won't happen... *shrug*


Disability Rights: Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
 
A.G. Bell did not have anything to do with The American with Disabilities Act. It was built upon previous legislation.
 
Actually Boult, were you aware that the US courts have ruled that those who function as nondisabled with things like hearing aids/CIs etc,are NOT protected by the ADA? Don't you find that ironic as hell?
 
deafdyke said:
Actually Boult, were you aware that the US courts have ruled that those who function as nondisabled with things like hearing aids/CIs etc,are NOT protected by the ADA? Don't you find that ironic as hell?
Click to expand...

Geez, that is NUTS!!!
 
deafdyke said:
Actually Boult, were you aware that the US courts have ruled that those who function as nondisabled with things like hearing aids/CIs etc,are NOT protected by the ADA? Don't you find that ironic as hell?
Click to expand...
Says who? Are you referring to Bonnie Tucker's story that was posted on DN long time ago?
 
Boult said:
Says who? Are you referring to Bonnie Tucker's story that was posted on DN long time ago?
Click to expand...
Okay, here's a citation for you:
Southeastern Virginia Society for the Deaf
"In determining whether an employee is disabled, it helps to consider whether the use of corrective devices reduces or eliminates the limits on the employee's activities caused by the disability. For example, if an employee is hard of hearing, but has normal hearing when wearing a hearing aid, this employee is not considered disabled under the ADA."

Here's another one:
Americans with Disabilities Act ADA Attorney Joseph & Herzfeld, Lawyer
"An example of a corrective device which eliminates the disability is an employee who is hard of hearing but who has normal hearing when wearing a hearing aid; this employee is not considered disabled under the ADA."
 
Etoile said:
Okay, here's a citation for you:
Southeastern Virginia Society for the Deaf
"In determining whether an employee is disabled, it helps to consider whether the use of corrective devices reduces or eliminates the limits on the employee's activities caused by the disability. For example, if an employee is hard of hearing, but has normal hearing when wearing a hearing aid, this employee is not considered disabled under the ADA."

Here's another one:
Americans with Disabilities Act ADA Attorney Joseph & Herzfeld, Lawyer
"An example of a corrective device which eliminates the disability is an employee who is hard of hearing but who has normal hearing when wearing a hearing aid; this employee is not considered disabled under the ADA."
Click to expand...
Thank you, but cochlear implant? those two talk about hard of hearing using HA to hear normally. what about cochlear implant?
 
Etoile said:
Okay, here's a citation for you:
Southeastern Virginia Society for the Deaf
"In determining whether an employee is disabled, it helps to consider whether the use of corrective devices reduces or eliminates the limits on the employee's activities caused by the disability. For example, if an employee is hard of hearing, but has normal hearing when wearing a hearing aid, this employee is not considered disabled under the ADA."

Here's another one:
Americans with Disabilities Act ADA Attorney Joseph & Herzfeld, Lawyer
"An example of a corrective device which eliminates the disability is an employee who is hard of hearing but who has normal hearing when wearing a hearing aid; this employee is not considered disabled under the ADA."
Click to expand...


I wonder what is their definition of "normal" hearing? That is risky to enact this because all of us have different benefits with our "corrective devices".

For me, I appear to have normal hearing with my hearing aids cuz I speak so well and can fool hearing people into thinking that I can understand everything that is being said. I am very good at playing the guessing game so I better stop doing that if I want accodomations. I will just stop using my voice and use ASL 100% of the time. That is what it sounds like I should be doing if I am going to get accodomations. *sighs*
 
Boult said:
Thank you, but cochlear implant? those two talk about hard of hearing using HA to hear normally. what about cochlear implant?
Click to expand...

To the public, a cochlear implant is probably seen as a hearing aid cuz it aids in hearing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top