A note about colors - I guess to some it is irrelevant. Some of us like to fancy up our hearing devices...my aids are purple, and my new earmolds will be purple and lime green and my last ones were pink and blue. Alicia's aids are zebra print with black/white striped molds. In my opinion, I have to wear them so why not have fun! Just like with glasses though, some choose simple and subtle and others choose funky and loud. My glasses are hot pink and bright mauve too...It matches my personality.
The colour of one's hearing aid is irrelevant to its purpose.
Why be upset if a DEAF person doesn't subscribe to the sociological term "deaf culture"? I have asked a number of persons over the years I have known if they ever heard of "deaf culture"? No.
To me ASL is communication by signs/facial expression. That is what I understand from the Introduction to Sign Communication-long time ago. Isn't that what LeClerc and others started out devising ASL? back in France a few hundred years ago? Relabeling doesn't change what it is.
Having dealt with Hearing Loss over 50 years was an "advantage" when I became "late deafened". I knew exactly what to do- thanks to CHS- to get into the Cochlear Implant programme at Sunnybrook/toronto as quickly as possible.
Okay, drphil: Can you like, make a blog about your implant, with all your information (where you got it, when you got it, what doctor did it, what time you got it, etc.) in it?! Because it's SO boring to read "CHS" "Dr. Chen" "ORAL DEAF SINCE DECEMBER 06" or 07, whatever it was every post you make!
It seems to me that you want deafies to all get implants because it's "strange" that we want to use ASL and communicate with others that way. UM HELLO: Not everyone can get amazing benefits from CI, or even get the CI at ALL. It's great for you and for all my other friends who have a CI, but I don't want one and I don't think I can get one anyway! So if I want to talk or use ASL or PSE or make up my own sign language, that's up to me! Not up to you! So don't knock ASL or any other sign LANGUAGE unless you've really researched it, even tried it. Jenny wasn't saying being a linguist will help deal with deafness, she was just saying that she is qualified to say that she has studied enough about how languages work to say that YES, ASL IS A LANGUAGE!
No sure what about the self defined person that uses a Hearing aid in the lexicon of "deaf" while claiming to be "cultural deaf"?
Does the medical classification of not hearing at 105 decibels qualify?
Does having an Cochlear Implant disqualify one to be "part of cultural deaf" even though the fact one doesn't "wish to remain in a silent world" be the very fact of getting one?
One can , of course, view any range of social activities within a "lens of some ideological understanding". Eg structuring all "viewings" within say "women studies/homophobia/blindness/"deafness"/Marxism/racism etc. Interesting game played out in sociology. Political correctness-run amok! Are you the "right segment". Gee Mr Orwell must be rolling in his grave at his "thoughts" on the loose these days.
Does "finger spelling" ,"contact signs","simultaneous communication"."total communication' "manually coded English(MCE)-signed English, Signing Exact English(See 2) and Seeing Essential English(See1).--seem to negate the proposition that ASL is "the language" of some of the "self-defined deaf" American/Canadians? The other minor problem- other "English speaking countries" systems: British Sign Language which is different than ASL-real? How about French Chinese et al systems?
Does bifurcating all persons into "blocks" called speaking/hearing vs Non hearing/speaking entities-"deaf?" give an accurate picture of society world wide? Who says studying Sociology is boring?
Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
This just like is me, I can communicate in English or BSL or both at same time which is called SSE, drphil, I was born profoundly deaf and all my life I had hearing aids, got by just about. Although, I now have Cochlear implant (if you must know, drphil, SOECIC, right ear implanted July/08, Activicated Aug/08 with Cochlear Nucleus Freedom (in shade of brown), I still use BSL with my deaf friends, and spoken lang with hearing friends yes I do get by with hearing friends so why won't you get by with deaf people and learn about their life/struggles/good things about being deaf/ acceptance of being deaf and learn their language.