Hearing

Some people believe cochlear implants improve the lives of those who are hard of hearing or deaf. In many cases, supporters of the implant are hearing parents of a hearing impaired child, as in America “90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents. There are about one million deaf people in America, so 90% is approximately 900,000 people, which is close to the population of Austin, Texas. Not being able to communicate with their child and the pressure of raising them in an extremely…

mentally inferior or retarded, less intelligent compared to their hearing peers, and unable to mentally process abstract concepts. These past perspectives on deaf persons to be mentally inferior, unintelligent, and concrete-based thinkers and learners were supported by less comprehensive studies in the past. However, in the present, deaf persons are now considered to have abstract thinking ability, intelligence comparable to their hearing peers, and more cognitive development when intervened…

condition of not hearing, and the uppercase Deaf when referring to a particular group of people who share a language- American Sign Language (ASL) –and a culture” (Padden 2). In Deaf culture, the label “hard of hearing” is frowned upon. The Deaf community…

On Thursday, October 1st, I went to a Deaf Night Out event on UNCG’s campus. The event was held in the school of education and was a mix between a social and a presentation. Luke’s roommate and a few other students shared their experiences from studying abroad in Italy to learn Italian sign language. When I first arrived at the event I did not see anyone I knew. I very much felt like an outsider who was imposing. Then I found Luke and felt a little more comfortable. Everyone there knew each…

signed language and spoken language. These individuals are also bicultural because they identify with both the deaf and hearing communities. However, this can be a struggle because they have to negotiate between two completely different cultures for their entire lives. One culture is the Deaf culture in the home and the other is the mainstream American hearing culture (p.40). Hearing children with Deaf parents learn to internalize the Deaf way of life from their parents, despite their ability…

Auguste Majkowski, a Canadian boy was born deaf and received a bilateral cochlear implant which failed to help him hear. A bilateral cochlear implant helps provide hearing in 360 degrees because your head acts as a barrier to sounds coming from different directions (Cochlear, n.d.). Thirty-six days after Auguste’s surgery, he lifted his head after audiologists Margaret Winter sent pulses of electric currents to his brain. Lifting his head showed that he heard a sound. This reaction was…

As a hearing individual who had no interaction with the Deaf community prior to enrolling in American Sign Language courses at the University of Pittsburgh, I previously had essentially no knowledge or understanding of Deaf culture. Gradually, I have increased my knowledge and awareness of Deaf culture and the Deaf community, but I have much more to learn because but there are always questions about Deaf culture and community that I still do not know the answer to. For Hearing People Only by…

main character. Belinda McDonald is the main character of Johnny Belinda, and Sarah Norman is the main character of Children of a Lesser God. These two stories both portray deaf women with outside hearing men whom they each fall in love with. Unfortunately, they also both suffer sexual abuse by the hearing communities. Although Belinda and Sarah share these commonalities, perception of the Deaf Person in society reflected in the movie has dramatically changed in thirty-eight years of…

of programs designed for deaf or hard hearing children (Schools and Programs for Deaf…..United States 2014). These programs offer a range of opportunity to exceed but parents just want their kids to be like everyone else so instead of embracing the different the put them in the schools with everyone else and expect them to function the same way. By doing this they are taking their child away from the support of the deaf community and putting them in the hearing community where they are treated…

while her nearby deaf friend doesn’t help because he can’t hear her cries for help. In Bones, a teenage deaf girl is treated as a homicide suspect because she doesn’t immediately speak to the police (Foss 437-438). As a result of this representation, hearing people assume that deaf people would jump to any chance for a cure. Cochlear implants present a “cure” for the Deaf, but it is not as beneficial one would assume. Some believe that any deaf person who can afford the procedure should choose…