Foreign Faces in American Deaf Schools

As the American medical community continues to “heal” Deafness — by surgically altering Deaf infants at four months of age with cochlear implants — we must begin to wonder what will happen to Deaf schools in America that were founded in the aftermath of the 1960s rubella plague that deafened and/or blinded an entire generation of children.

Continue reading → Foreign Faces in American Deaf Schools

Cochlear Devices & the Deaf Community: Hearing Within

by Tammy Tillotson

“I saw clearly that it was useless to try to teach her language or anything else until she learned to obey me. I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of a child.” — Anne Sullivan, teacher of Helen Keller

Cochlear Devices: An Obedient Decision
As medical professionals have found that deaf children between the ages of one to three are more likely to respond well to cochlear implants, will this parental decision of technological obedience adversely affect the child’s experience within the Deaf Community and Culture?

The answer is largely a matter of personal perspective based on two main arguments.

Continue reading → Cochlear Devices & the Deaf Community: Hearing Within