Comment:

Jim Wills

Oct 18

re: cochlear implants. Funny you should say that. Thirty years ago my wife and I discovered that the light of our life, one-year-old David, was deaf. I remember discussing it with an older surgeon at the hospital where I worked. He laid it on the line: A deaf child is more handicapped than a blind one because it cripples his ability to learn. Research confirmed it: a deaf child would typically grow up to have a third-grade education and work in a laundry - something confirmed by memories of my neighbor at the trailer park where I lived when I was in medical school. He was deaf, about forty years old, and except for a combination of odd sounds and hand gestures was completely nonverbal - and worked in a laundry.

Hearing aids were of no benefit to our son. My wife and I began the arduous process of learning American Sign Language - and we struggled. It was totally inadequate to convey the ideas and concepts that are so beautifully expressed by the English language; for example there is no way of saying, "It looks like you have picked up a little weight." The ASL expression is, "You're fat."

But during those classes, the instructor mentioned that she knew a family 'way back in the booger-woods of West Virginia who had a deaf daughter with this thing called a "cochlear implant." Out of desperation I looked up their phone number. It was truly a bolt from the blue. Her mother was an absolute ball-o-fire, a local schoolteacher and Tiger Mom of the first order. A quick hop later, our son in tow, we talked with this family about this "CI" device. Thirty years later, I remember it vividly: Mom yelling up the stairs, "Rishona!" And from upstairs came the response: "What?" "Come down here." "OK." My God; those words still make me choke up. Mom's parting words were: "A cochlear implant will change your child from a deaf child to a hearing one."

Ableism. The Internet was just coming of age, and I had joined a newsgroup (remember those?) called, "Beyond Hearing," searching for anything - anywhere - to help me help my son. I thought everyone on the group would be delighted with my discovery, but I was met with complete, unbridled hostility, culminating with the comment from the newsgroup owner that "Deafness is not a disability; our members commonly intermarry, hoping to CREATE A DEAF CHILD. You just want to destroy the deaf culture."

I lost my mind. I replied, "Did you just say that you wanted to create a disabled child?"

And yes, I want to destroy the deaf culture. And the blind culture. And the cancer culture. And the childhood heart disease culture. All of it. And if you don't think deafness is a disability, I'll send you my address. We can meet and stand in the center of the Interstate with our backs to traffic. By God, we'll see who is disabled."

As I said, that was thirty years ago. David had his surgery, learned to talk, went to regular school, and graduated college. As for this abelist nonsense; starting that stuff with me is a very low-return enterprise. I've been to Canaan and I have no patience with such.