A summary of Robert A. Crouch’s argument in Letting the Deaf be Deaf.
In the article, Crouch dives deep into the use of cochlear implants for deaf children. He begins by including excerpts from The Country of the Blind, written by H.G. Wells. The story revolves around a man named Nunez who finds himself in a community which, as the name suggests, comprises entirely of blind people. Nunez being the only sighted person assumes that he should enlighten the blind. He sets out to convince them that they are being robbed of experiences because of their lack of sight. The people fail to understand Nunez’s argument because they have been blind for as far as fifteen generations. Nunez condescendingly claims that he knows the objective truth because he has sight. Out of concern, the people consider resolving Nunez’s problems by surgically removing his eyes.
Crouch relates this story to the experience of deaf kids being born in hearing families. He notes that about 90 percent of kids born without hearing have parents with hearing. The natural reaction of those parents is recognizing their children as “different” and trying minimize this difference. They might also label the child using terms with negative connotations, like “abnormal” or “disabled.” Additionally, the child’s abilities will be held up and compared against societal norms of ability. People tend to commiserate with deaf kids, assuming they will lead an incomplete life.
Concerned parents are likely to resort to doctors and seek medical solutions to their kid’s supposed abnormality. Crouch likens the medical procedures to a machine that needs to be repaired, reducing a child’s abilities to mechanical functions. After an assessment of the hearing impairment, the kid is ranked in bronze, silver, or gold categories. In the case of severe impairment, the child will qualify for a cochlear implant which might alleviate it.
Medical experts also recognize deafness as a disability, which can lead to an othering of the affected individuals. Otologists further emphasize this separation and use it as the basis to advance their profession in which they fix deaf children. Scientific journals have used derogatory remarks to describe the deaf community. They view it as a disease which not only weighs down deaf children but also their parents. It supposedly limits their contribution as a member of a society as well. Consequently, otologists prepare themselves to save these kids from the dark “world of silence.” This savior attitude manifested by the medical community is meant to welcome deaf people into the hearing community. Any prior efforts made by dead individuals are regarded as futile and worthless.
Crouch thinks of cochlear implants as devices which serve as gateways to the hearing community. Adoption of these implants shifts the child’s priorities in life solely to the learning the mainstream mode of communication: oral languages. Parents think this is in the best interest of their children. They put themselves in their kid’s shoes and assume they are at a disadvantage. In the transition from the normative world to the deaf experience, their hearing fades away which isolates them.
Fear of isolation drives parents to seek the best help. They want their kids to be included in the same spheres as them, and to prevent the children from being disadvantaged in any way whatsoever. The issue with cochlear implants, however, is they have to meet set criteria in order to function. According to the National Institutes of Health, it is compatible with children above two years old with severe hearing loss. They must have a hearing threshold beyond 90dB, much higher than the standard 25dB in hearing individuals. Additionally, the candidate must have received little to no success from conventional aids and is dedicated to use the cochlear implants, without any hinderance from medical, financial, or social factors.
Once the implants are in place, parents hope children that their children perceive more speech in order to absorb it, and soon learn to speak. Studies have pointed out that most kids in these cases find little success and fail to communicate orally. The benefits rendered by the implants are minimal, even with special training for committed children. Another study proved that five years of usage will lead to 70% success rate in creating vowels sounds. One more study provided evidence that only 40% of the words uttered after 3.5 years of implant use are intelligible.
People who gradually lose their hearing can benefit more from implants because they already have a linguistic framework. Prelingually deaf children don’t have this luxury so they spend years building the basic foundation. Therefore, parents should consider the low success rate of the implants. They should also keep in mind the physical and/or emotional toll this procedure might have on the children. Maybe hearing parents of deaf children should not be scared about the othering and allowed them to grow in their own way.
