I'm not gonna make any friends with this one...
I've been enjoying my absence from writing things...toying with the idea of making my blog a vlog...but I recently viewed something that stirred me to write, and like I've said above, I'm not making any friends with this one.
Anyway, I was watching a pilot for a new program on PBS, starring Fox Chicago News lady Robin Robinson. The show is 22nd Century, check it out and vote for it. (Vote of Die, motherfucker)
One segment I saw wowed, and then proceeded to shock me. It was pertaining to cochlear implants. Cochlear implants, in case anyone doesn't know, are devices surgically implanted in the ear to help the deaf sense and interpret sound. It does not restore hearing or amplify sound though, but instead works by stimulating auditory nerves with electronic impulses.
I was amazed. This was no hearing aid. This was way for those with complete loss of hearing gain some sense of sound. Then I learned about the Deaf Community's outrage over the Cochlear Implant.
See they feel that this makes deafness seem like a disability when, to them, it's a culture.
I was blown away by this revelation. Hopefully, karma won't punish me, as I am possibly being a bigot, as I've never been deaf, but being deaf IS a disability. Disability = Lack of ability. Deaf lack the ability to hear. I'm aware that they still have a language, but they cannot hear.
Now picture not being able to walk, assuming you can. Being bound to a wheelchair is a disability. You lack the ability to walk. Sure, you play murderball, but I'm fairly sure that's because one person in a wheelchair playing basketball
against some 6'2'' dudes would suffer a disadvantage on the b-ball court. But let’s step away from handicapped people; I don't want karma to make me deaf and peg-legged.
I think sign language could have advantages if it was universal across borders. But it's not.
Sign language even has regional hand dialect. Another thing that separates it from a traditional culture is the lack of common ancestry; most deaf people are born into hearing families.
Lets say there was a huge aids community. And let’s say they finally release the cure for aids the major medical corporations have had for years. Should there be an outrage? Is it fair for a larger group to shun people who want a solution; shun those that desire white blood cells, because the community is centered around the lack of an immune system. Hmmm…
Once again, this is probably just me being ignorant.
Kevin "Peg-leg" Walsh
Anyway, I was watching a pilot for a new program on PBS, starring Fox Chicago News lady Robin Robinson. The show is 22nd Century, check it out and vote for it. (Vote of Die, motherfucker)
One segment I saw wowed, and then proceeded to shock me. It was pertaining to cochlear implants. Cochlear implants, in case anyone doesn't know, are devices surgically implanted in the ear to help the deaf sense and interpret sound. It does not restore hearing or amplify sound though, but instead works by stimulating auditory nerves with electronic impulses.
I was amazed. This was no hearing aid. This was way for those with complete loss of hearing gain some sense of sound. Then I learned about the Deaf Community's outrage over the Cochlear Implant.
See they feel that this makes deafness seem like a disability when, to them, it's a culture.
I was blown away by this revelation. Hopefully, karma won't punish me, as I am possibly being a bigot, as I've never been deaf, but being deaf IS a disability. Disability = Lack of ability. Deaf lack the ability to hear. I'm aware that they still have a language, but they cannot hear.
Now picture not being able to walk, assuming you can. Being bound to a wheelchair is a disability. You lack the ability to walk. Sure, you play murderball, but I'm fairly sure that's because one person in a wheelchair playing basketball
against some 6'2'' dudes would suffer a disadvantage on the b-ball court. But let’s step away from handicapped people; I don't want karma to make me deaf and peg-legged.
I think sign language could have advantages if it was universal across borders. But it's not.
Sign language even has regional hand dialect. Another thing that separates it from a traditional culture is the lack of common ancestry; most deaf people are born into hearing families.
Lets say there was a huge aids community. And let’s say they finally release the cure for aids the major medical corporations have had for years. Should there be an outrage? Is it fair for a larger group to shun people who want a solution; shun those that desire white blood cells, because the community is centered around the lack of an immune system. Hmmm…
Once again, this is probably just me being ignorant.
Kevin "Peg-leg" Walsh
posted by Kevin at 6:11 PM
3 Comments:
Kevin, I am not trying to attack your views in any way. I just think there are a few problems in some of your reasoning. As a friend, I would rather point out these errors instead of letting you be ambushed by people you are quick to call others bigots in the future.
Sound and Fury is a decent documentary that tackles these issues. While I agree with you for the most part, I think that the AIDS analogy is a little extreme. Deafness is not a life-threatening disability, at least in the sense that every deaf person has a greater chance of dying young, as far as I know.
If you can, check out that movie. It gives the perspective from both a hearing family born with a deaf child and a deaf family with a deaf child, and both families are related through the fathers. To be clear, not all deaf people dislike the cochlear implant. As an association, the deaf equivalent to NAACP, I can't think of the name, has (or had) a statement saying that cochlear implants are wrong.
I have witnessed the fact that deaf culture is important to some people. However, I am sure there are many cultures that have similar feelings. For example, if one considers being non-white a disability, then there would certainly be some outrage by non-whites if a non-white went through a surgery to become white.
I guess what it boils down to is that disability is in the eyes of the beholder. If I'm not mistaken, the term is usually corrected as 'differently abled,' meaning the ability is still there, it's just not the same. A deaf person cannot hear, but that doesn't mean they cannot communicate with the hearing community.
And to their advantage, sign language is as much a language as English or any other language. A regional hand dialect with sign language is no different than you encountering someone with a deep southern accent. You won't necessarily understand every single word, but you will certainly be able to communicate via the spoken English language.
Furthermore, common ancestry is not a pre-requisite for a culture. Take the culture of any music genre or even straight edge culture for example. These are all cultures that have no requirement of your parents being of that culture. By your standards, the only traditional cultures would be that of ethnic groups. However, a culture is any group of people who share similar thoughts on a certain subject and can relate through these ideas.
The true problem in this issue that you may not have seen in the Fox show, was that instead of keeping these feelings and ideas within their culture, some deaf people have judged and ridiculed other deafs for not conforming to their standards. Apparently, being part of the deaf culture is not a choice but something you are born into. On top of this, a slight hatred and prejudice against hearing people has emerged through this topic. In the same way some people assume other groups are all racists, some deaf people hold the opinion that all hearing people have a natural bias against deaf people. It is made apparent in Sound and Fury through the "you'll never understand" and "all you know is hearing" arguments. True, most hearing people will never know what it is like to hear; but most deaf people will never know what it is like to not hear. The argument is pointless unless both can agree that they are both wrong. What is good for some, may not be good for others.
If you are seriously interested in seeing the movie, let me know. I never got to see the ending and who decides to get cochlear implants. Sorry for the extremely long response. I just haven't had the opportunity to voice all my opinions on the subject until now.
Greg Frazier
It was a PBS show.
Ahh. I was thrown off by the fact that it hs Robin Robinson on it.
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