Andy Palmer: BBC Alba’s The Switch On tells cochlear implant stories you don’t see in viral clips

I’m Deaf and my husband was not Deaf. We had a Deaf child and My husband was told by the professionals that our son would not achieve if he did not have an implant. My husband scratched his head and said but my wife is a BBC producer and she is Deaf…? He was told he would regret not giving his baby an implant. I agreed to go “through the process” so he could make a decision that he could live with. At all stages in the process he felt that it was if you don’t, your son won’t… He was a scientist and a PHD holder and he was shocked by the lack of scientific evidence and certainties. At the end of the process he gave his answer. “No, no substantial evidence.” Our son, who is high average ability, was later diagnosed with a specific learning difficulty that means he can’t process sequential language. If we had given him an implant it would not have worked. Now our son is planning to go to college to study A levels with a view to doing architecture. His access to education has been through the spacial language of BSL, which will be his language through university. Through BSL he has learnt and is learning English with a view to being fully bi-Iingual. A cochlear implant is not a magic passport to success and inclusion in the hearing world. It is one of many potential strategies. It is sad that the money out into implanting Deaf children is not matched by improving the standard of BSL in education so another strategy is equally available.

Finally, a realistic article and link to the programme.
Huge sigh of relief after over 25 years of tension due to the awareness that too many medical and health professionals ignore, neglect, sideline or uninformed about Deaf-Ok options which are slowly penetrating their specialisms.

Refreshing, too, to read with complete understanding; a perfect description of how we Deafies (and hearing allies) cope…just about cope…. the constant, unremitting, unacceptable upside-down thinking of mainstream society who somehow have lost to ability to creatively, productively consider deaf employees’ role in the workplace.
“If I hadn’t become accustomed to this kind of nonsense I’d have thrown the remote at the TV so hard it would have flown out the other side, penetrated the living room wall, blasted into the garden and then remained in low level orbit.”

That Limping Chicken is capable of chucking eggs faster than a tennis ball machine.

Society – if you have nil/rubbish Deaf awareness, take note.
Ask us FIRST before imposing ridiculously defeatist ideas upon our roles within employment and social life.

The Deaf Force is amongst you with ‘weapons’ including rotten eggs to fight senseless prejudice.

May the Deaf Force be with us all!

With thanks to pennybsl.

With apologies to Shakespeare, the hype around the CI is a Sound and Fury, Cignifying Intolerance.

Stay Deaf! Or in German Bleib taub!

Great comments so far.

I notice no one has mentioned the assumptions initially made by professionals about the little boy Fraser who has learning difficulties alongside his acquired deafness – the original reluctance to offer him cochlea implants assuming they wouldn’t help him or he wouldn’t be “enough of a success” which makes me uncomfortable about the PRishness around CIs. As it was, his mum felt they were worth trying and seems to have been vindicated in this. I think there is an obsession with CIs having to make someone into a fully hearing person or be able to hear speech and use the phone. In reality I know many people who find just some environmental sounds are useful, or being able to perceive music helpful. Like hearing aids, how much they “aid” hearing is hugely variable and how much energy that takes from the individual varies hugely too.

While it had many moments of audism outlined in comments I do think alongside other resources is a useful programme for some things – medical staff DO talk to people without aids in and have limited or no sign – my audiology are brilliant but their receptionist is inaudible and has no facial expression – I make her use pen and paper if I have no working aid cos she doesn’t sign at all. People need to realise that every deaf, hard of hearing or deafened person is different. The majority of the people in the programme were deafened in their teens or later. I would like to have seen more coverage of the kind of speech therapy work people have to do, stuff like what Bill Mager and Andy yourself have written in the past here at LC. The Deaf Teens prog a few years ago also showed a bit about how people practised listening to sounds which I think is important to show. It’s hard work, luck, aptitude and other factors which make CIs work, not some 100% fully hearing magic!

I read your article, but have not seen the bbc program. My instincts tell me that the writer, as a child of deaf parents, has a somewhat biased view. For those not familiar with the deaf culture community (those who sign), they are known to aschew cochlear implants, as they are counter to and threatening to their culture. I have no issue with anyone who chooses not to.implant, but your article is lacking facts amd misleading. It is known that implants are much more successful in young childrean. So the fact that this program was built around a center that mainly implants adults it is not surprising that their success rates are not as high. Also we do not know the skill of the surgeon there. Success is highly impacted by that precision. Finally, the article opens with a woman complaining that it’s not like the videos, it takes years of therapy. This is true and is not hidden when you meet with an implant team. It is stated very clearly up front that years of therapy is required. Nothing this great comes without effort. If you followed many children at a respected implant program i am confident that you would see very high success rates with children who do the requisite therapy. Anyone who is reading this article amd deciding whether or not to.implant, especially a child, should do their research and not be swayed by this biased author who may be well intentioned, but I strongly believe has his own agenda.

Joanna,
it is unjust to spend huge amount of public money to make their lives easier. You need to consider the probability of failure of your expectation. Unwillingness to adapt to your communicative needs is itself the problem. Your statement of having “no hearing ability above 400” does not make sense. Your audiologist or whoever told you so is an asshole.