Many of the comments under the article on cochlear implants that appeared on National Public Radio’s (NPR) website on April 8th, 2012 claim that it is heavily biased in favor of cochlear implants, and poorly researched. Also of note are two remarks by Dr. John Niparko, an expert in the field, and the lack of critical analysis surrounding those remarks. He claims: “The implant works for the vast majority of [...]

  In a recent article, “The Distrust Runs Deep on Both Sides?” the author asserts: It’s not like these parents find out their child is deaf, go on the internet, discover a deaf community sharply divided between the oral and ASL-using camps, panic, and somehow decide they’ll embrace the oral camp while never trusting any single living ASL-using deaf person ever again. Doesn’t such a supposition seem ridiculous to you [...]

I was born in a small town.  And I live in a small town.  Oh those small communities.* Okay, so my town may not be Mayberry; we do actually have modern conveniences like electricity and cable TV.  But how do you find the best resources when the nearest deaf “person” is your neighbor’s 15-year-old dog? For my family, living in a rural area is great—lots of grass, plenty of cows, [...]

  Dear Senator: My name is Dr. Christopher Jon Heuer, and my dissertation, professional research, and work all fall within the fields of literacy, language acquisition, and Deaf Education. HB 1367 will soon come before you for review. I hope you will consider my arguments against it and oppose it. At the very least, I urge you to demand FAR more investigation into it than has been made to date, [...]

  I used to feel sorry for children who had cochlear implants. I did. When I saw them it broke my heart because I really believed that their parents just didn’t understand deafness. I judged those parents. I assumed that the parents were looking for a quick fix to something that in my opinion didn’t require fixing. I said things like, “I would never do THAT to my child.” Aaron [...]

Many in the signing community feel strongly that the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) philosophy of focusing on auditory and oral approaches when teaching deaf and hard of children is wrong.  The auditory and oral approaches use the weakest point of a deaf or hard of hearing individual to teach language; which is ridiculous, especially when there’s a perfectly serviceable organ ready [...]

Propaganda is the spreading of an idea or falsehoods to promote and propagate an agenda in this case the idea and ideology is the notion that to hear and / or behave as a hearing person is superior to being Deaf.  This notion is known as AUDISM and it is not cool From the AG Bell Association bylaws: Section 4.    No substantial part of the activities of the Corporation shall [...]

A concept clouds the minds of mankind, the concept of the importance of human speech.  This pernicious idea has caused suffering to deaf people around the world. Human speech is unique in that it requires the organ of the ear to function.  It doesn’t matter if you are a Bushman of the Kalahari desert or an urbane Londoner, a Thai masseuse or fat Eskimo.  Human speech, via various spoken languages, [...]

I got a stuffed Simba for my fourth or fifth birthday when I lived in a school district with a large d/Deaf population. I slept with him every night, but during the day, I was too busy playing with the other deaf kids on the playground to pay him any mind. He accompanied me on our move West. Other than my younger sister, I didn’t know any other deaf kids [...]

Aaron has only been hearing for a year.  He’s three.  He was born completely deaf in both ears.  After a near-death experience at birth, my husband and I knew we were very blessed to have this little boy, and were thankful his lack of hearing was the only side effect from his emergency delivery.  We found, however, that much of the hearing world saw Aaron differently than we did.  When [...]