Friday, October 07, 2011
Captioned Video: The Doubters of Sarah Churman
Remember the phrase people, deaf people can do anything...even speak really, really well just like Sarah Churman. Even hear pretty good, too! But we still have a hearing loss at the end of the day when we turn off our hearing aids or cochlear implant.
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21 comments:
Sarah is now facing the controversy. She knows that. She did not mention 'Deaf' at the Ellen Degeneres Show.
She is scared because someone will dig her demographic background. She KNEW that she is hard of hearing. Since she worked with the Envoy and the Envoy Esteem, she knows that she has between 40db-90db which is not consider the profound deaf. She knows that.
Miss America's Heather Whitestone and Helen Keller are my heroes. They are integrity people. Sarah is not.
Sorry to say that Sarah C. is not my role model.
White Ghost
Hello Mike, I respond to your blog from Belgium. I'm a retired teacher of the deaf and I have a blog where I translate some interesing news from around the world for mostly my deaf former pupils. I must say first that it seems to mee that you have no accent at all. And about the subject, something rarely happens, Belgian newspapers picked up the video and published a story round it, so it's a succes and misunderstanding at the same time over here too. Keep up the good work. Greetings, Martin
WG,
Sarah didn't ask for the money. You saw how shocked she was when she got the money. So was her mother in law. She didn't expect any of this happen. It's no fault of her own when she got the money. She believes in her own Esteem implantable hearing aid that she wants to let everybody know about it. I see no problem in doing that either. Envoy, just like any businesses would do, took this opportunity to help Sarah out because her simple video became an overnight sensation and garnered the attention of millions. That's free advertising for Envoy. Her husband said he didn't want to put the video on YouTube but his mother insisted that he should and so the rest is history. It does't matter if she says she's "deaf" or "hard of hearing," its her choice on how she sees herself as. Deaf doesn't mean you're profoundly deaf. My hearing loss is moderate-severe. Mine is between 65 and 70 db over my frequency range in right ear. I'm deaf but I see myself as hard of hearing, too. So, no real biggie there.
I don't think she's "scared" that someone will dig into her background. She just prefers to speak. Not sure what you meant by demographic background since "demographics" has to do with statistical data of a population such as showing average age, income, education, etc.
Well, you have your role model(s) and other people have theirs. She's not my role model, either. Just that I'm glad she's finding success with her implantable hearing aid.
Hello, Martin. Thank you for the kind response. As for accent, I do have one. It's a small bit of a southern accent (southwest United States) where I lived in Georgia when I was a young boy and picked up its regional accent.
What?!?!
Never heard a deaf person speak?
I'm still amazed at how certain people are responding to sarah's video.
Deaf DOES NOT, and I repeat, DOES NOT necessarily mean no hearing. Deaf means hearing loss, full or partial.
Many hard of hearing are considered deaf.
Very common to meet a deaf person, even those with absolutely NO hearing from a deaf ed back ground in oralism to be speaking real well, as perfect as a hearing person. This is not a new thing.
Move on people!
Wisdeaf, you can see my email address in the "Wanted" poster. Or click on the "Wanted" poster to go to a short blog piece with my email address in it.
Even though my husband thinks she have alot of hearing, I think she is telling the truth as I am severe to profound deaf like her. I have a CI but putting on an old HA in my unimplanted ear surprised me how little I can hear..almost to nothing. I wondered how did I survived with HA s all these years (my hearing don't change much over rhe years. It tend to stay the same). It just happened. I am a lipreader like her but I don't speak as good as she does but my educational background is different. I grew up in public school and she went to a deaf (assuming oral deaf like Moog, possible with AVT training) school. So I believe her that this is her first time hearing her voice. People don't have to understand how it happen but I remember getting new hearing aids and I was able to use it right away. She used Hearing aids too so I would not be surprised she can use her esteem implant right away as it is different from CI.(I do remember being able to pick up language when activated)
Too bad people don't believe that deaf people can speak as well and even pick up spoken language easily when activated when heard very little to none before. I think having speech skills and lipreading help tremendously rather they never heard or not.
Family Feud. That's their problem. I don't blame her husband. I know what he's thinking. Integrity. They need to clean up their act.
Come on Mike, as for demographic background by the audiologist, it's called Audiogram. You know what I am talking about.
White Ghost
WH,
Demographics pertain to about the human populations (e.g. size, color, ethnic race, density, etc). It is not the same as an audiogram which is a graphical result of a hearing test. And, no, I wasn't sure what you were talking about.
I'm not seeing any problems with the Churman family. They all supported Sarah. She finds herself blessed with that kind of support in her blog yesterday.
"I'm surrounded by good people. Good, honest, kind, generous, genuine, and loving people. I'm blessed."
So, I'm not exactly sure what "act" they're doing that needs to be "cleaned up." Sarah just happened to be at the right time and place for all that to happen. That's what I see. No one expected the video to go viral. No one expected to go on the Ellen DeGeneres show. No one expected to see that the $30,000 cost of the surgery and implant would be reimbursed. And certainly didn't expect the next one would be free for Sarah's other ear. This is merely a case of being in the right place and time did good fortune fall on Sarah.
I don't think you understand Rush Limbaugh's excerpt on his website -
"Most people naturally assumed she was deaf, but she had some residual hearing."
Sarah Churman's youtube stated that she was born deaf. She and her family did not elaborate what the Enovy Esteem is in the youtube until the major networks learned and found out it was for the people who have the sensorineural hearing loss/the 40db - 90 db cateogy. It is very sad for me and other people to see millions of people to think that her treatment on Enovy Esteem is curable, treatable and became hearing. If she posted "hard of hearing or hearing loss or else" in her youtube, nothing would have happened.
I agree with Rush Limbaugh on every words in his website about her.
White Ghost
90 decibel is a pretty big hearing loss. And from what I understand, most deaf (and big Deaf) are in the 90's decibel range. (I am in that range too)
Oh and majority of deaf have residual hearing. Stone 100% deaf is rare.
WG,
I said in a previous blog regarding Rush use of the word "deaf":
"One thing Rush got wrong was that, yes, Sarah was born deaf. Maybe Rush was thinking (and was attempting to speak on behalf of his hearing audience) in the context as stone deaf but yes, she's deaf and even hard of hearing, too. And now, she's easily hard of hearing to the point when people would automatically assume her to be hearing the way she would speak so clearly."
Context varies with the word "deaf" and I was making a point about the word "deaf" and how people and Rush perceive what that word means. Just like saying the word "blind" describing a person's eyesight you'd think it means that the person cannot see at all. But that's not true. Blind doesn't mean 100% cannot see just as deaf doesn't mean 100% cannot hear. In fact, there are legally blind people who are allowed to drive their own cars in some states (of course, with certain restrictions and requirements).
This is where I believe Rush doesn't quite get the term "deaf" that Sarah used and was thinking in context as cannot hear at all. The word "deaf" does not always mean stone deaf just as blind doesn't not always mean totally blind. Nearly all deaf people have some residual hearing.
Sarah isn't required to elaborate although she did say in her YouTube (edited in later) that it was an Envoy Esteem hearing implant. It's really up to the public to find out what Esteem is all about and who it is for. But now that she's in the spotlight and an "automatic" spokesperson for Envoy, she will find it to be her duty to help inform people about the implantable hearing aid and her condition. Remember, it was only 8 days since her video was uploaded on YouTube to the time she was on the Ellen DeGeneres show. A lot of stuff happened in a very short amount of time.
Sarah accepts the fact that she is deaf and was born deaf. The phrase "hard of hearing" just qualifies the person's hearing and speaking ability. I'm sure she defines herself as a hard of hearing person as well.
WG..
I think you're making a big ado about the word "deaf". As anonymous said many deaf have residual hearing and that 100% deaf is rare, he/she is correct.
She wore hearing aids before she got the middle ear implant. What does that mean? It means she had some residual hearing. It's not unheard of to label someone deaf when that person actually have residual hearing.
I have friends labeling me deaf. I am deaf. But, technically I am hard of hearing.
Again, the word deaf does not mean 100 percent hearing loss.
And, again, there are profoundly deaf people who speak fluently without any deaf accent or any accent at all.
From what I'm getting, you're not impressed with Sarah, and that is okay.
It seems you're saying Sarah lied about being deaf and that is where the integrity question is coming from?
If that is the case, how is it lying when she is in fact deaf. Many cochlear implant recipient label themselves as still being deaf even though they can hear with the implant.
Candy --
"I have friends labeling me deaf. But, technically, I am hard of hearing."
That's what Sarah needs to say that. She could have said "I am deaf and I have sensorineral hearing loss" something like that.
The reason why the major networks researched and found out that the Enovy Esteem is good for any people who have the 60db-90db and the sensorineral hearing loss. That's why Sarah has not gotten some more interviews from the major networks.
Again, there is a big if. If Sarah posted, "hard of hearing or hearing loss" in the youtube, nothing would have happened.
Rush Limbaugh was right. He knows the difference.
White Ghost
WH,
Even Rush doesn't understand fully the word "deaf" because he thinks it means 100% cannot hear. You can be deaf and use the Envoy. Sarah is correct when she said she was born deaf writing that in her YouTube. Rush qualified his own misunderstanding of the word "deaf" by saying:
"If you're a hundred percent deaf it won't work because it restores your natural hearing using your own eardrum."
Of course if you're 100% deaf and cannot hear a single thing it won't work. Sarah never said she was 100% deaf. She said that she was born deaf. This is what many people are misunderstanding the term "deaf" thinking it means 100% stone deaf. Which is why I used the word "blind" as an analogy of people's (mis)understanding of the word. Sarah was correct to say that she was born deaf as it was written in YouTube. She could have certainly clarified so more about her hearing loss but it's hard to believe that people are actually getting upset over her own acceptance by calling herself as a deaf person.
In 8 days since YouTube aired, she has been on the Today Show with Matt Lauer and the Ellen DeGeneres show, and was featured on CNN with Anderson Cooper. Pretty good in just a few days time. Technically it'd been about 5 days because by day 2 or 3 the video went viral and the media caught wind of it, both web and on TV. That's pretty good over a short period. She may get a few more interviews, who knows.
Again, the Churmans never expected this video to go viral. They wanted the video to be available for their friends and families to see the reaction of Sarah when the implant gets turned on for the first time.
If you had read Sarah's blog about her experience on sound after the implant turned on you can see how she could even hear herself swallow, hear the crunchy sound of croutons as she ate them with her salad when before she couldn't such a thing with her hearing aids. All this brings to mind the title of her video, "29 years old and hearing myself for the first time" makes sense. She is deaf and appears to have a very hard time hearing words or even her own voice. With the implant turned on she's able to hear her own voice clearly for the first time. I can clearly hear my own voice with my HA. I can certainly hear the sounds of crunchy foods as I eat them and so on. And that sounds like Sarah's hearing loss is probably in the 80s range.
I think it really boils down to people continued misconception and misunderstanding of the word "deaf" when applied to people with hearing loss. Sure, she was VERY HoH before the implant and now she is easily HoH with the implant. But she is still deaf just like a blind person is still blind even though special glasses helps him see well enough to read and navigate the world around him.
I think it's fairly obvious that part of the vlog's title "...hears herself for the first time" clues viewers to the fact that Sarah has a hearing loss of some kind.
There are many degrees of deafness, just as there are many different degrees of blindness, for example. Some ppl have hearing loss in the higher frequencies but not in the lower ones, some have the reverse kind of loss. Others have an upside down bell curve on their audiogram indicating the loss is greatest in the middle frequencies, at which human speech is heard. Then there is the amount of loss in decibels, from mild to moderate to severe to profound, and stone deaf. Very few deaf ppl are actually stone deaf, which means they hear no sound whatsoever. Most deaf ppl range from moderate to profound.
Some born profoundly deaf can learn to speak, with or without hearing technology, with speech therapy or some form of AV program. The earlier the therapy the better the speech is, typically. It's obvious that Sarah has had early intervention and early speech therapy of some kind, because not only does she speak well but she also has a Texan accent. It also helps that she likes to talk and prefers that mode of communication.
I was born severe-profoundly deaf, have worn a hearing aid since 4 years of age but received early speech therapy by age 2. Without the hearing aid, I can hear a few things, loud bangs, the shower running up close, and my dog's barking at ten feet (she's a little dog who thinks she's a big one)and hubby's yelling at her to shut up. Like you and Sarah, I speak well, with a southern drawl.
Hearing ppl drop their jaws when I disabuse them of the notion that born deaf ppl can't speak. Them doubters never seen a deaf person speak. Yet Sarah Churman just showed 'em. Some seven million times on the internet, not to mention how many more times on television. :P
Ann_C
FYI, the term "legally deaf" usually starts at 40db.
So, legally, a deaf person is one with 40db or more.
Technically 40db is hard of hearing.
So, legally, Sarah is deaf.
Man, I think in between worlds (in a limbo) deaf like me need a new label beside deaf. Some deaf people don't understand oral deaf at all. And a few of them expect us to use "hard of hearing" "hearing impaired" if we have little speech and hearing even though we have no access to language and sounds without technologies. I hate those name for personal reasons.
Ann_C, you're absolutely correct. One can be deaf and hard of hearing. Now they tell us it's impossible to be both. Not with hearing technology we have today. Maybe with stem cells I'll become deaf and hearing at the same time leaving my left ear alone that is profoundly deaf. LOL. Nothing wrong with on improving your hearing reception with newer hearing technologies. Dianrez makes it like it's a bad thing to have that goal. Some people who never heard sound or even benefited from it with the help of technology tend to try hard to somehow drag people down whenever they aspire to have greater access to sound someday.
Hearing technologies continue to advance and improve. Stem cell biotechnology continues to advance forward at an amazing pace that it may come a lot sooner rather than later.
Anony @5;50 pm,
You're deaf at the end of the day, when you take off your HA or CI before going to bed, right?
I've stopped worrying about what label "others" expect me to describe myself. To other deaf, I'm oral deaf. To hearing ppl, I'm hoh. That's how either party views me.
I didn't "label" myself, they did. Betwixt two labels is indeed limboland. Frankly, I don't like any labels, but that's the way the world goes, labeling this 'n that. ;)
Ann_C
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