Miss-Delectable

Not all deaf people want to be 'fixed' | Charlie Swinbourne | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

As a deaf person, there's a few standard things you expect to happen during an audiology appointment. These include: having your hearing checked and your ears piped with warm plasticine to make new ear moulds for your hearing aids (I've always secretly loved this bit), and being gently chided for not cleaning your ear moulds more regularly (I'm a lifetime offender).

Yet you may also come into contact with people who despite their job – treating deaf people – are not incredibly deaf aware. I've never met an audiologist who knows sign language, and have winced as I've watched some of them repeatedly call out patient's names with a slightly annoyed look on their face, as if they've forgotten that said patients (often sitting quietly reading an old copy of Reader's Digest) might not be able to hear them. What you wouldn't expect is for that lack of deaf awareness to go another extreme, and to have to endure your audiologist denigrating the deaf community you belong to because you have politely declined their offer of a cochlear implant.

Yet this happened recently to deaf actress Emily Howlett. Howlett had been offered an implant before, and said no. But on this occasion, the audiologist refused to back down, telling her that she needed the operation, incredibly, "to prevent her falling into deaf society". This came after Howlett told her audiologist that in the last year – after acting a number of deaf short films – she has made deaf friends and started learning sign language, discovering the deaf community. As Howlett told me: "My identity is a deaf person now. I didn't go to deaf school, and I didn't grow up with deaf peers, but I'm deaf now and it's me. I'm not sure I want to change that."

The audiologist responded by calling in a number of colleagues to help persuade her. Howlett said: "I told them that it was upsetting for them to sit there basically calling deaf people broken and disillusioned." The audiologist then issued a warning about continuing to learn sign language: "She said I would end up alienating all my hearing family and friends. My voice will go, and my lip-reading skills will decline. Meanwhile, my signing will never be as good as [deaf people] who grow up with it."

The total lack of professionalism aside, what makes Howlett's experience more puzzling is that it's unclear how much benefit she would get from cochlear implants, because her deafness isn't due to a condition in her ears, but rather due to the way her brain processes the information her ears receive. "When I asked what benefit I'd get from cochlear implants," Howlett said, "the audiologist said she couldn't say for sure. I'd maybe end up with no improvement, or it might improve my tinnitus, or it might make it worse. Or I might be able to hear, although she admitted it'd never be good enough to hear speech properly." Despite this, the audiologist then said: "Don't let the deaf influence your decision. Make the right one.'" At this point, Howlett walked out.

This is not an argument against cochlear implants. More and more deaf people now have them, and they have become more accepted in the deaf community (here is a fantastic blog charting the jump from hearing aids to cochlear implants). Several deaf people I know recently decided to have one fitted. The first, a father of two (who still uses sign language as well as speech to communicate), had an implant so he could hear his children if they cried, and also hopes in time to be able to use the phone again. The other loves music, and had implants after losing the little hearing he had left. Both weighed it up carefully and happily and feel they benefited from their decision, but that doesn't mean it should be assumed that they are the default option for every deaf person.

There's no way of knowing exactly how you'll adapt to a new way of being able to hear. The 2007 documentary Hear and Now followed an American filmmaker's deaf parents as they had cochlear implants after a lifetime of deafness. The film showed how the couple had wildly contrasting responses, with the father embracing the implants, while the mother was deeply unsettled by sounds she had never heard before. On a less dramatic level, some deaf people I know have struggled to adjust to using digital hearing aids after wearing analogue hearing aids all their lives – which they've also complained that audiologists do not understand.

While for many there is a positive outcome, implants are not an easy fix and they involve a massive change in deaf people's lives. There is an operation, recovery time, then a period of adjustment in which people learn to make sense of the sounds they're hearing, sometimes for the first time in their lives, sometimes after years of not being able to hear. Deciding whether or not to undergo surgery is a personal choice, and deaf people should not be judged for the decision they make.

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- Helen Keller

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jillio

Very well said!

rebeccalj

Didn't know I was broken.

KarissaMann05

Wow. It amazes me how hearing people's oppressive comments, in this article, toward Deaf people. Sighs.

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"Pragmatic language is a vital social skill that enables the school-aged child to navigate their way through demanding social situations." -- R. Owens

shel90

I know...many hearing people hate us for no reason. Now, I hope this helps some hearing people here on AD why we have such a tight close-kit community. Who wants to go out and deal with all of these harsh judgements made on us.

And then some hearing people complain that we are harsh on them here on AD. Well, go see the comments and see some examples of how we have been treated all of our lives.

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"Wine improves with age. The older I get, the better I like it."

--- Anonymous

authentic

audiologist ...... erase that, make a new word "deafism"

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Buffalo

You ain't broken!

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“The problem is not that the (deaf) students do not hear. The problem is that the hearing world does not listen. “- Rev Jesse L. Jackson ( American Civil Rights Activist, Minister)

Buffalo

Good for Emily Howlett for standing for her belief!

CI - expensive solution
SL of whatever country - cheap solution

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“The problem is not that the (deaf) students do not hear. The problem is that the hearing world does not listen. “- Rev Jesse L. Jackson ( American Civil Rights Activist, Minister)

jazzy

Once I was hearing, now I am deaf then CI will not bring my hearing back 100 percent. I would not want to waste $80,000 for just to hear little bit not what I want but hear whole 100 percent. Plus I do not want to make them wealthier, drive fancy car, nice house and vacations while I work so hard to make living barely to survive with our country in so deep debt. It is who I am and they are still not accept us, sigh.

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Tousi

jazzy, you were once a hearing person?

jazzy

yeah, not all of us were born deaf. I remember my last sound coming from my mother's own voice, you are coming home with me before I slipped into deep coma.

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jillio

The bad part is, the hearing people don't seem to be reading these threads.

KristinaB

It should almost be like required reading for the hearing in this forum.

jillio

I wonder if we could get that added to the rules?

Steel X

I don't think "fixed" or "broken" is the right term on Deaf people as it's like they are embarrassing themselves thinking they know what's normal or regular person is like even thou they really don't. They aren't even better than Deaf people anyway so if they think we need to be "fixed" or whatever, I tell them to get their brains "fixed" instead.

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rebeccalj

The problem I have with them trying to *fix* her is that it seems, sometimes, that hearing community thinks it's *SUCH* an horrible life to not hear. Why? Why cannot we be allowed to live with our unique way of viewing the world and with our language and our culture? Why does hearing somehow make us a better person than we already were?

Sunshine

I think it's not so much that we become better, but that we become easier for them (hearing people) to handle. It's easier for them to not have to learn to sign. It's easier for them if we could just hear them. Its about them, not us.

rebeccalj

'Normal' is a word that is rarely ever a word in my vocabulary. Who gets to decide what's normal? The Normal Police?

I'm me. End of story.

whatdidyousay!

Me either!

whatdidyousay!

I when a ENT doctor as I was getting earaches in my left hear. And he wanted me have a hearing , I got an audiologist that was in training and she did not ask me if I was ready and just starting of with a loud beep and I almost feel out of the chair ,. Half way through the test I tried to tell I was getting an earache and needed a break, but she did not hear me. She told after the test she forgot to turn up the sound so she could hear me! I never had such poor audiologist before. I will not go back to that audiologist again. There was another audiologist there but her left the one in training on her own.

whatdidyousay!

The only time I feel broken it when I bang my head , and I do this a lot!! I need a hard hat! I have notice we been getting hit with a lot of threads from people that think we have a 'condition' that need to be fix or that we need to rescues as we're so helpless and lost. When will people realize that being deaf or HOH doesn't mean we're helpless and can't take care of ourselves.


How do click onto say you like a thread??

jillio

Exactly. It is about addressing THEIR needs, not the needs of the Deaf. And that is what is so offensive: the thought that people need to be changed to make it easier for the other.

rebeccalj

The bottom right hand corner, just above reply, if you move mouse 'like' will appear. Then you click on it. It only appears if your mouse is near it. I hope that make sense.