I reread and I don't think I ever said that ASL should be last resort. I said that parents who have had no contact with deaf culture or ASL will not likely look into ASL until they know that there is no way for their child to gain the ability to hear.
Something doesn't work, can it be fixed? No it can't? Okay, what can we do to give my child the best chances at a happy and independent life?
This is when ASL, deaf culture, deaf schools, family learns ASL, freinds learn ASL, Move to a location that better for my deaf child, etc.. will come in to play. I'm not saying this is the only option. Some seem to think I'm against ASL and deaf culture. That's not what I'm saying at all. I myself have been HOH my entire life and Deaf for the past 20 years.
I know that being deaf or HOH does not equal "Broken". But I just feel the first question is, "Something (Their hearing sense) doesn't work, is there a way to make it work?".
I also agree that it would be great if everyone, and I do mean everyone learned ASL. There are a lot of benefits from this beautiful and expressive language that would most likely help everyone in some areas. Especially with communication when they learn to speak (ASL or orally) with more expression to help express what they are saying. So I also never said that people shouldn't learn ASL. I'm saying it's natural for someone to see if something that isn't working can be fixed before they act like they are stuck with things the way they are.
Try to look at it from the point of view of someone who has never meet a deaf person, never heard of deaf culture, never understood ASL.
Take it from someone who's lived in the "Late deafened" or as some call it "Between worlds". In other words I'm deaf but I not part of any deaf culture. My deafness didn't come full force till my late teens when my hearing dropped beyond the help of any hearing aids. If there was a way for me to have my hearing restored to some degree I would have wanted it. I was already established "Outside of deaf culture". I didn't grow up in that culture so I couldn't really fit into it because it was to late. I already had my life (Friends, work, home, etc...). To go be a part of the deaf culture I would have to leave my culture.
