Sweetmind said:
Guess what, my two hearing daughters first language was ASL that you couldnt accept the fact that they are very accomplished in their academics and were on the honor roll. Guess what their school doesnt call me for the teacher s conference because they dont want to spend money on interpreter as well as they dont give a damn about me as being mother of my children .. It shows me that they, just like you, have a huge problem with prejudice and discrimination toward me as a Deaf mother.
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Sweetmind
It's no surprise that your children learned ASL (and my guess was they actually signed back to you earlier then kids who aren't exposed to ASL) THey are bi lingal (sp?) this is great.
Perhaps your arguement should not be against the CI/HA themselves, they aren't the problem and the early the child recieves them the better easier it is for them to learn to speak and hear oral languages. From what I'm hearing most of those adamently against CI/HA's have had problems in their past (welcome to my world
) with communication problems with their families. Language is easily aquired up until around 8 years old. This would be a good time for a CI/HA plus trying to get the child into a class that uses some type of visual language. And even if the parents opt to not us ASL, SEE, or cued speech because of an implant it's their decision to make.
I just recieved a CI. I actually didn't 'qualify' for it. I like living in the hearing world, I also know what it's like to hear well enough to get by and have people think the HA takes care of the problem. I like listening to music, I like to actually hear some of the stuff on tv and not have to read all the captions. In really like following conversations WITHOUT have to stuggle to figure out what the heck theyre talking about. That's what a CI can do. And young children should have the oppertunity to learn the skills when they are young enough to absorb the input without stuggling.
WIll implants work with everyone who gets them, of course not. Not one thing done medically has 100% success rates. Even tubal ligations fail and a woman ends up with a tubal pregnancy, psychotropic drugs cause some people to flip out and harm themselves and others yet they work for the vast majority who take them, EVERYTHING has a failure rate and I'm sure the parents are aware as I was before risking a surgical procedure. I could see if you were arguing that parents should push ASL along with the speech by putting them in a classroom where it's worked in preschool.
Now about the school not 'offering' you interpeters for conferences. Did you actually request an interpenter (in writing) to be present so you could dicuss your child's teachers (in hs you would also need to let them know which teachers they would need to notify so they could schedule them to be there when you wanted to talk to them since they do have to pay milage and hourly for intepeters). If you didn't make the request they have no way of knowing that you want to meet with the staff. While in elementy school they actually schedule conferences for parents in high/middle school they have conference days but don' actually schedule any parent with specific teachers, you have to go in and see them yourself, sometimes you wait while someone else is finishing up discussing their child. Many parents don't go to hs conferences if things are going great for their kid, so unless you notified the hs your children attended they aren't going to have an interpeter standing by just in case you decide to come. If you have never tried notifying them and you still have a child in school try it next time and see if they don't try to accomodate you. If you put the request in writing, and copy one to a file to yourself so you have a paper trail they will probably get right to it. You may have to have a time different then normal parent teacher conferences because of scheduling issues but my guess is you will (or would have if the children are out of school) get your meeting with an interpeter present.
To say that the school is not accomadating your needs because you are Deaf when you havn't notified them that you need that accomodation isn't right. If you have notified them and they didn't complywith your needs then you can persue it leagally under the ADA I think. Just because there is the ADA does not mean that we as the person with the needs do not also have responsiblities like notifying the other party that we need some type of accomodation. If you don't notify, then you can't expect to be accomdated.
I'd be interested in knowing how your school reacts if you do make a request. Remember to ALWAYS make a paper trail. (and don't forget to date your letter
)
