February 2009

Monthly Archive

February 27, 2009

Be Like A Serpent and Dove

Posted by kim under hearing loss | Tags: |
[8] Comments 
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about all the ugly comments to my city’s newspaper about the lawsuit raised against theaters that fail to caption.  Some of you who read them likened these comments to racist remarks.   
“Why not just sue God for making it so that you were born that way. . .”
 
“How far will this Americans with disabilities insanity go? ”
 
“Once again, the MINORITY ruins it for the rest of us…..”
 
“I hear there’s a high illiteracy rate among the deaf. . .”
It’s true.  Substituting the word, “black” for deaf or “Civil Rights” for American Disability Act into some of these statements would be highly inflammatory.  “Why not just sue God for making you black?”  “How far will this Civil Rights insanity go?”  “I hear there’s a high illiteracy rate among blacks. . .” 
 
I remember a time my dad had a party for the people in his office in 1970.  He invited a black man, an educated engineer, along with the rest of his staff of engineers.  Several people called days before the party to say they would not come since the black man and his wife had been invited.  A couple of them even asked my dad to withdraw his invitation to the ‘blacks’.  Thirty years later it’s hard to believe that educated people could have been so narrow minded.  They worked with this man day in and day out, yet they could not get beyond his skin color.  I have always been proud of my dad for doing the right thing.  He set an example for me when I was young, so that I would not grow up to be a racist.
 
Negative attitudes toward others who are different do not come naturally.  Children usually learn prejudice from their parents.  One of the many good things that came out of the Civil Rights movement was more exposure in the media of positive black role models.  Our children have grown up seeing black mayors, governors, judges and doctors– people who are respected for their work.  Now we have a black president, partly because three generations of children have been raised since the Civil Rights movement.  It took laws, and then it took people to enforce the laws.  Change came about slowly, but it came.  There was a time I could not even imagine a black president.  But we’ve accomplished much in the nearly four decades since my father’s party back in 1970.   The world is a better place for all when we judge by character and contribution rather than skin color.   We all reap the benefits.
 
We still have work to do.  Judging from the comments above, the d/Deaf and disabled are still seen as lacking in many ways.  I have experienced audism first-hand as I’m sure many of you have. 
 
So the question is how can we combat these attitudes?
 
I believe we need to educate the ignorant with love, not with hate.  No one listens to hate.  I will end with a couple quotes from someone who knew how to succeed in the fight against discrimination, Dr. Martin Luther King.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies
hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction….The chain reaction
of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of
annihilation. -1963

 
We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart. – 1967
    
 
 
 
 

February 18, 2009

Anonymous Audists

Posted by kim under Accessibility, accommodations
[16] Comments 
A few weeks ago I wrote about the letter I sent to my local movie theater.  I never heard back.  (sigh) Figures. 
 
Anyway, tonight my husband pointed out an article in our local newspaper.  Guess what?  Someone else has filed suit against theaters in the Seattle area to provide captioning.  

 
 
Here’s a link to the article.  If you read it be sure to pay attention to reader comments in the ’Sound Off’ section.  The majority of comments are somewhat anonymous since most post under a cyber handle.  I guess they feel more comfortable letting their true feelings show when hiding behind a mask.  If you’re deaf/Deaf or HH, the comments will most likely infuriate you.   
 
Just to give you a taste of it, here are some of them–
“. . .I’m not hearing impaired I’m just left handed . . .all my life I’ve had to deal with spiral notebooks (and grades lowered for handwriting). Pianos and Guitars (made for right handers) as well as everything else in the world – which is made for right handers. Insurance companies actually say that left handed people die sooner becasue we have to react ro a right handed world – my life expectency is 5 to 7 years shorter according to them. But I don’t see all of us left handers sueing the rest of you because we are stuck with something we were born with… sorry. . .” 
Huh.  OK, onto the next comment.
 ”OMG… I’m going to sue cause clothing Store’s don’t have pants, jeans, etc.. any smaller than a 32 inch waist. They only cater to fat people. . .”

 

Here’s another.

“Here’s how it’s gonna work if the hearing impaired have their way:

The few that insist on their right to have their disability catered to will patronize a few movies at these theatres, then they will realize that the public theatres are not so great after all. They will soon stop attending, the few numbers that they are. The theatres will in turn be forced to fold under the expense and changing habits of our society (home theatres) and at the end of the day most people will choose to watch movies at home, which ALREADY have great captioning built in.” 
 
 
So. . . I guess he thinks most of us have never been to a movie. . . NEXT!
“I think this is just more crying from ONE MORE minority group that has needs, lets all hold hands and cry now…..”
 
Had enough??  There were 59 comments and the majority were extremely angry. Dripping with ugly sarcasm just like those above.  Wow!  I have to say I was really surprised people actually felt that way.  Where does all that anger come from?  To be honest, when I see comments like these it makes me glad to be deaf.  People like that think they’re going to be hearing, sighted, and able to walk their entire lives.  Most of them will eventually lose something if they live long enough.  I know it’s not nice, but I can’t help wishing bad karma on all of them.
 

February 17, 2009

10 Reasons the Late Deafened May Not Benefit From A CI

Posted by kim under late-deaf, late-deafened
[11] Comments 

Recently a question came up in another blog about the late-deafened and the effectiveness of the CI.  I felt the need to respond in here rather than on that blog, since the original post was about something entirely different.  You can read it here. 

 
I’ll quote what I’m responding to.  One blogger asked,
 
For example, we have many people of the baby boomer age whose hearing is going down significantly as a result of their age, I don’t suppose that a CI would be an appropriate solution for them all? Your thoughts on that? 
 Another responded,

Most late-deafened adults can benefit from cochlear implants more easily than children because their spoken language is already well-developed as they grew up with normal hearing. As long as they receive appropriate rehabilitation after receiving a cochlear implant, they can benefit from it greatly. The ones who can’t benefit from it due to other health complications and other reasons like a friend of mine can use an FM system with their hearing aids, learn to read lips since they already have an established foundation of spoken language, or learn sign language if they choose to.
 

First, I want to clear something up.  Many baby-boomers with severe hearing loss have experienced some kind of trauma not related to aging.  People have accidents that damage parts of the middle and inner ear.  Auto-immune diseases and drugs can also damage hearing.  Some families are genetically prone to becoming deaf at an early age, with onset starting in early adulthood.
 
Second, it’s important to emphasize that MOST late-deafened adults who have been implanted don’t hear perfectly in many every day situations.  They still use a variety of ALD’s, such as captioned television, Captel phones, light-activated fire alarms and door knockers, vibrating alarm clocks and hearing dogs. 
 
Third, there seems to be a misconception among many that a CI will cure most everyone.  I’ll list some of the reasons why some of my friends with hearing problems cannot get a CI.
  
1)  Born deaf on one side, but only moderately to severely hard of hearing on the other.  In this case, you might even be deaf enough to qualify for the CI IF you had once been hearing on that deaf side, but because doctors prefer implanting the ‘good’ side rather than the deaf side, they won’t take the risk while you still have some hearing left.  Also, if one side has been without hearing and unaided for many, many years, they prefer to aid the side that has been aided.  So, even if you were born with normal hearing, but went deaf on one side early, they prefer implanting the side that has had the most hearing for the longest period of time.   
 
2)  Born with parts of the middle or inner ear missing on one side and the development of hearing loss on the other side in middle-age.
 
3)  Born with one misshapen cochlea and development of hearing loss on the other side in middle-age.
 
4)  A problem with the nerve that leads from the cochleas to the brain.  The nerve can be damaged during accident or disease.
 
5)  Cochlear implant malfunction that prevents reimplantation.  I’ve known a few this happened to.
 
6)  Steep skislope loss, in which a person can be deaf to speech, but has good low tone hearing.  (An experimental implant is in the works called a ‘hybrid’ but it hasn’t been approved by the FDA yet.)  Skislope hearing loss is extremely common, and complicated to treat.
 
7)  Health reasons.  It may not be recommended to undergo an elective surgery.  For example, I knew someone with heart problems who wasn’t allowed to get a CI until her heart was in better shape.
 
8)  This is unusual, but I recently met someone with hearing loss and hyperacusis.  It’s so bad, that the sound of her own voice causes pain, so she signs.  A CI won’t help.  Her hearing is too good, though she can’t make much use of it because all sound is distorted.
 
9)  Unstable hearing.  My husband has Menieres.  At certain times he is totally deaf, but then his hearing comes back partially, so he can’t be fit with hearing aids, much less an implant.
 
10)  People who suffer from severe tinnitus that interferes with sound understanding, even though their hearing loss isn’t severe enough to qualify for implant.       
 
Hearing aids sometimes don’t make much of a difference.  There are times I turn my hearing aids off in noisy environments, because I feel I can lip read better without all the extraneous. distracting noise.  I know someone else who rarely wears her hearing aids because she’s allergic to every kind of synthetic ear mold material known to man.  Also some people have weird ear canals that make them difficult to fit.  I have a problem with my right side.  I honestly hate my hearing aids and don’t wear them as often as I can get away with it.  It sort of bothers me when someone who has never worn hearing aids criticizes deaf people who don’t wear hearing aids.  I recommend getting the full story before pronouncing judgement on them.   
 
The final thing I wanted to point out is that it isn’t easy for all late-deafened to learn lip reading.  Many highly intelligent late-deafened people really struggle with that, even though they may speak clearly.  I’m not sure why that is, but I know some extremely bright people who grew up with perfect hearing who have difficulties lip reading.
Many middle-aged late-deafened people who became deaf before the CI was invented have adapted well with sign language.  For them, perhaps gaining the ability to hear again is scary.  They’ve already been through one major life-changing hearing loss, struggled to adapt, have moved on and are happy now.  Why rock the boat? 
 
I am following the blog post with interest.  I didn’t watch the program.  I agree that many benefit from the CI, probably even the majority of late-deafened, but there are a lot of people who simply can’t get one, and there’s so much misinformation out there.  In my gut I feel it’s wrong to criticize someone’s personal choices when you don’t know the complete story.
 

February 6, 2009

Court Access for the D/deaf

Posted by kim under Accessibility, hearing loss
[9] Comments 

I wanted ask if any of have had difficulties getting accommodations in court situations. My son got into some minor trouble last spring — nothing major– but he did have to appear in court. When I asked for accommodations by relay I was told everything would be fine, but when the actual day came they said they couldn’t accommodate me. The other boys’ parents were there and could hear everything that was happening. I could not. I had requested accommodations well in advance. Sometimes I have to laugh at other peoples’ grasp of deafness. When I got there the receptionist said, “You won’t have any trouble hearing. . . He talks LOUDLY into a microphone,” referring to the judge. I don’t know how else to explain to people that I’m deaf, other than to tell them I’m deaf. Then because we both speak English I expect them to understand that deaf means you can’t hear even when people talk very loudly. I’m D-E-A-F.

Anyway, that happened way last spring– in Podunk on the other side of the mountains. That’s water under the bridge now. But recently I was having lunch with a late-deafened friend. This woman is very, very hard-of-hearing. She uses a Captel phone. She had to appear in court because there have been problems settling a relative’s estate. She called to request accommodations. Then the court receptionist said, “You seem to have no trouble understanding me on the phone ma’am,” and she hung up. My friend didn’t even get the chance to explain she had called on a Captel, or what a Captel was. She received no accommodations. Again this was a small town in Washington state.

This reminded me of another deaf friend who was summoned for jury duty. She called the TTY number several times and no one answered. She never got her day in court. This was the county courthouse in Seattle. I have been summoned many times myself. I always write that I’m deaf and will need accommodations, then never hear back.

What do you all do?

What really bugs me about this is our courts shouldn’t have a hard time finding a CART provider. Many court stenographers moonlight as CART providers. It’s as if our courts feel that having a TTY in their office is enough deaf accommodation. If even our court systems think they’re above federal law, how can we expect anyone else to follow the ADA?