Good morning Carmen- hope you enjoy your stay in this website which is much more than Deaf culture. Having a relative, Hard of Hearing though not deaf, does make things a bit personal for you. Knowing ASL will not as such assist you in "understanding hearing loss" effect on a person"
To understand what is called "Deaf culture" is to go back in time about 125 years to the effort to try and help deaf students learn using Speech rather than ASL. In fact, I understand ASL was "banned" in such schools thus the reaction that deafness is a "culture" not a "medical disability". That situation continued till the introduction from various experiments of the Cochlear Implant. Approximately 30 years ago. Now of course, accepted by as a means to "hearing". Not everyone does- re "Cultural" deaf. Thus the interesting split between "real" vs"cultural" deaf to this day. I became deaf on December 20/06 after having a Profound hearing loss for over 30 years. I started the process which in the end resulted in being accepted for a Cochlear Implant in 2007. Yeah, not everyone can benefit from an Implant.It has been pointed out that everyone person who gets an Implant rejects remaining deaf. The consequence of the Cochlear Implant is to decrease the number of people who relay only on ASL for communications. Thus the uproar on whether parents should "implant their deaf children" in order to "speak". Yeah even the thought that an Implant is an "instrument of genocide" has been thrown around.
An interesting world indeed Carmen.
Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
