cochlear implant opinons

[Oceanbreeze]

Iam married to a hearing man.

Iam lashing out against audist people especially those who treat deaf people as 2nd class citizens for not conforming to their hearing ways.

I work, own a house, pay my taxes, don't hurt people, volunteer, donate to charities, and raise my children.

Both of you are making it an personal issue.

Why would I associate with people who won't treat me as equals? I don't need to be around them. Instead I am involved with the Deaf community and if someone thinks that's awful...they are entitled to their opinion. It won't stop me.

I may be hearing, but, I TRY to treat everyone has my equal. It doesn't mean that I'm completely in your shoes, because, I know I'm NOT. But, that's the thing. I KNOW I AM NOT, and I would never say I know exactly what it's like to be IN your shoes. However, I CAN say I have an idea of what it's like to be treated as less than. What people need to realize is that it isn't THAT hard to be empathetic. You just have to want to be. This divide has a lot do with that. The hearing world typically pities instead of being empathetic. I think it's that pity type mentality that drives the medical establishment to view deafness as something that needs to be fixed; much like they do people with physical disabilities.

There is a difference, though, and I realize that. Some of my issues had to have medical intervention or I would have died. Really, the only intervention a deaf child needs is the ability to communicate. Give them a visual language and you've achieved that. Everything after that is gravy. Speech skills are a plus in certain situations, but, they aren't NEEDED.

I really wish parents would realize this. It may save a kid and the parents a lot of heartache.