Sometimes I wonder if some deaf people will change their perspectives on cochlear implants.
Today, I was sitting in class and it's obvious that my Deaf teacher is completely against cochlear implants. I have to explain something - there are two signs for "cochlear implant" - I would gloss that but I can't find the place where I can make the font smaller. Anyway, two signs, right? One is neutral where you make the "U" handshape and put it on the side of the head where the cochlear implant would be behind the ear. It's hard to explain HOW to sign but the idea is that it's the "U" handshape. However, there is also a negative sign for "cochlear implant" - same movement, same orientation, same location, but two parameters are different - the facial markers and the handshape. For the handshape, it's "V" bent. If you sign it that way, it means the Deaf say that the cochlear implant was forced onto the child or adult or whoever that got the implant. Needless to say, my teacher used the negative sign for "cochlear implant". He has no idea I have one. I'm too scared right now to mention that I have one because I know how strong his opinion is about the cochlear implant - plus it's still a new class. It's too early to talk about this issue. However, he made it clear that he doesn't like them, right? So he implied that cochlear implants are not a good idea for anyone, nor should anyone get one because it's good to be deaf. That it's a medical method to "fix" deafness. That the person who has a cochlear implant will never learn sign language. He had this discussion where at one school, either in the past or still on-going, they have one class where it's kids with cochlear implants, no signing, and across campus, there's another class where there's deaf kids who sign, all the time. I felt a little offended because it means that people who have cochlear implants *think* they're not deaf, they don't sign, they'll never be in the Deaf community nor are they interested in the Deaf community, and so on.
I realize that that's a common thought for an older Deaf person, but the world is changing. We all have to accept changes. People do change for a lot of reasons.
Not sure what my point was exactly, but all I know is, I'm proud to prove him wrong when the time is right....
