Cochlear Implants and the Culture of Deafness Essay

Cochlear Implants and the Culture of Deafness - Essay Example This paper will examine whether the introduction of the neonatal hearing screening program has changed how the deaf community thinks about cochlear implants and further highlights the role the deaf community and cochlear implants advocates. A social model of deafness is part of disability that is linked to arising from the disabled people themselves, friends, family members, associated political and social networks. One aspect that discourages the understanding of an impaired condition by the promoter of cochlear implants is lack of impression. The Deaf Community insists that arguments concerning the deaf be made from the perspective of the deaf party and not his parents or the society. There are individuals in the society who do not understand the use of cochlear implants on the hearing impaired. In this case, they tend to assume the use without exactly knowing what they are meant for. Such insinuations obvious in the society neglect the deaf person’s opinion. While the techn ology may be useful in trying to boost a person’s self-esteem it is only convenient as aiding device and not as a curative one. Children’s deafness persists on a bionic ear, while their hearing is still impaired. This defeats the relevance of the hearing aid. To assert further on needlessness of the bionic ear, cochlear implants cannot aid in improving a person’s cognitive or their language skills. Users of cochlear implants will, therefore, be still dependent on other persons who do not have hearing impairment issues in their day to day lives. The deaf persons will require translation and adaptive learning process in order to fit in the social structure of the hearing population. Deaf persons and other individuals with hearing ‘problems’ go-ahead to form their own structures of social interaction that enhances their own method of communication. Such groups may include those of persons with cochlear implants.