Cochlear WAR!

Technology changes everything. Especially if it deals with communication issues and the ability for deaf people to communicate with hearing people and vice versa. In one webpage entitled "Cochlear WAR" the author, Matthew Moore, seems to have changed his mind on how to approach people rather to call them generally as "audists." At one time the webpage had a section called "Audist View" (see main page) before changing it to "Professional View" sometime during 2005 with an explanation on why the change took place. Though the website "Cochlear WAR" goes without saying.

It's important to have these open discussion forums that will allow people a place to discuss issues regarding cochlear implants, deafness issues and even Deaf culture without worry that comments will get edited, deleted, or worse have the commenter banned. For example, Deafnotes was notorious for pushing their one-sided issue while ignoring others (see past history here). It'd be a losing war to shut people out on the topic of cochlear implants just because a moderator(s) or commenter(s) doesn't see eye to eye. It would serve no purpose to go about editing or deleting pro-cochlear implant statements or opinions, even to the point of banning them just of for the sake to try and control the topic.

Over the years the number of discussion forums have grown either because earlier ones tended to monopolize topics, were politically one sided and attempted to squelch opposing viewpoints, moderators who acted like dictators, too many people received banishments, or that the diversity of forums weren't quite that diverse in the first place which gave reasons why many opted to start their own discussion forums. Not a surprise there, folks. People now have a choice on which forums to choose form and that no one forum has a monopoly. But because of the increasing use of high speed bandwidth connection videos and vlogs are now becoming much more common to have access to.

One popular video access is YouTube. We are now seeing more and more video examples or messages of successful cochlear implant users. Especially when it comes to videos of bilateral cochlear implant wearers in young children. With two implants they make a world of difference, or so say the audiologists, since it involves directional hearing, help discriminate words against background noise, and takes advantage of two sides of the brain when it comes to auditory processing. And there are approximately 3000 people who have received bilateral cochlear implants so far to date.

And so people go about showing these real life success story like Caroline Bass who got her cochlear implant at age 18 months. But at age 7 she asked her parents for a 2nd one for her other ear. Stories like hers gets noticed on news such as Boston WBTZ with a news story titled "Special Ear Implants Help Girl, Born Deaf, To Hear." But it's not the story that's compelling. It's when viewers sit down and listen to her talk and respond just like any other hearing girl her age. And is able to understand what was spoken. Seeing news stories like that one would compel hearing parents to scour YouTube for more examples of videos like Caroline Bass.

Just like 5 year old Trevor Ross who responded just like any other 5 year old hearing boy where he was fitted with a cochlear implant at age 1 year old. But Trevor doesn't seem to look directly at anyone whenever he responds. You can hear someone ask questions in the background and he answers them like a typical but funny 5 year old kid.



Or this deaf girl who is probably 3 or 4 years old singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" just like any other 3 or 4 year old hearing girl. You wouldn't even know she is a cochlear implant wearer after listening her sing.




There are many cochlear implant success stories on YouTube and we'll be seeing more success stories like Caroline Bass grow over the years. And since 90 percent of all deaf babies are born to hearing parents, parents are going to see and hear how these kids respond in those YouTubes videos and news. And watch these success stories seeing how well these kids can understand voices and speak like typical hearing kids. So, what are the odds that hearing parents will watch videos of signers on YouTube discuss issues about cochlear implant? Not many since the majority of them do not know sign language in the first place. It'd be well advised for these signers to invest their time to provide a transcript or subtitle, else their efforts to reach the hearing masses will simply fall on deaf ears. There are compelling reasons on both sides of the cochlear implant issues but seeing those videos of kids with cochlear implants and seeing how well they do with those are probably the most compelling videos of them all.