Radio Workshop

Stepping into the listening world (Transcript)

by Nancy Farghalli

Narration: It's Thursday night in Lower Manhattan, and Angela Godiva is a first timer at the monthly cochlear support group run by New York's League for the Hard of Hearing. Godiva faces 40 people, and signs that she lost her hearing when she was fourteen. Tonight, the 22-year-old seeks advice from the group.

Fade sound from group

Narration: She came to collect information about the benefits and the downsides of the cochlear implant. She signs a question--.should she undergo a cochlear implant surgery to possibly regain what she lost eight years ago. Her words scroll across a real time captioning screen. Across the room, a sign language interpreter focuses on Angela's hands as they gesture and punctuate. He is the voice for her words.

CUT: (angela) I'M RESISTANT BECAUSE IT HAS TAKEN ME A LONG TIME TO ACCEPT THAT I'M DEAF. CAUSE I WAS HEARING BEFORE.

Narration: Godiva pauses. Her hands are stationary. She looks at the ceiling. No words appear on the screen. Then, her hands move rapidly again. She signs she enjoys the deaf community. She signs she's afraid. Music is what she misses. What if, she asks, she could listen again?

CUT: (angela) I'M NOT SURE IF I'M READY TO FACE THE POSSIBILITY THAT I COULD COME GO BACK TO THIS OTHER WORLD.

Narration: Godiva fears losing what makes her deaf. Jodie Rodriquez's arm shoots up. Rodriguez was born deaf. Two years ago, she became one of the 40,000 deaf people to receive a CI. She poses a question to Godiva.

CUT: (rodriguez) WHY CAN'T A COCHLEAR IMPLANT, DEAF CULTURE, AND SIGN LANGUAGE CO-EXIST IN YOUR MIND?

Fade down from support group

Narration: In the past 12 years, cochlear implants have become one of the most divisive issues in the deaf community. The debate is reminiscent of previous conflicts in the community—when they argued about how to teach sign language and how to support deaf children in regular schools. Now, the deaf world faces another challenge—whether to embrace medical technology that can "cure" deafness. In 1990, the Food and Drug Administration approved the CI surgery for all deaf people. The National Association for the Deaf immediately released a statement that the implant surgery robbed the deaf of their culture and attached the word broken to their identity. They say the deaf don't need to be fixed.

CUT: (hanin) THERE'S A DEAF COMMUNITY THEY IDENTIFY THEMSLEVES AS CAPITAL D DEAF.

Narration: Dr. Laurie Hanin is the co-executive director for the League for the Hard of Hearing and a trained audiologist. She administers sound tests and counsels those who might want to pursue the surgery. Dr. Hanin has spent 12 years working in the deaf community,

cut: (hanin) THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE IS AMERICAN SIGN LANGAUGE. PEOPLE WHO IDENTIFY WITH THAT COMMUNITY DON'T LOOK AT THEMSELVES AS HAVING A DISABILITY.

Narration: So how could a CI fix a hearing disability? Inside the ear, the hair cells located in the cochlea stimulate the audio nerve, which sends a message to the brain. Ninety percent of people who suffer from sensory hearing loss don't have hair cells that work. Researchers developed a computer simulation that showed the difference between how a normal functioning ear, a hearing aid, and a CI project sound. This is a simulated sentence heard with normal hearing.

Fade up sentence: A BOY FELL FROM THE WINDOW

Narration: This is a sentence heard through a hearing aid:

Fade up sentence: A BOY FELL FROM THE WINDOW

Narration: And, now this is the same sentence through a cochlear implant.

Fade up sound: A BOY FELL FROM THE WINDOW

Narration: The difference is that the Cochlear Implant does not amplify like a hearing aid. The implant can bring sound in at the same level it was produced, which means a whisper remains a whisper, a noisy room is a noisy room. The CI device can produce clear and distinguishable sound by stimulating the nerve through electrical impulses, rather than a sound wave. Dr. Hanin again:

CUT: (hanin) THE EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT IS REALLY WHAT MAKES YOU HEAR. THERE'S A MAGNETIC RECIEVER THAT IS REPLACED RIGHT OVER WHERE THE RECEIVER IS. IT STICKS WITH A MAGNET. THAT'S ALSO A MICROPHONE. IT PICKS UP THE SOUND SENDS IT TO THE SPEECH PROCESSER, BEHIND THE EAR.

Narration: The surgery destroys any hearing that exists in the ear. There is no turning back. A person who has some level of hearing runs the risk of becoming deafer by removing the microphone.

Fade back support group:

Narration: About 30 percent of the Thursday support group wears CI microphones on the back of their heads. Jodie Rodriguez is celebrating her two year CI anniversary. Though she does not have the hearing that normal people enjoy, Rodriquez says she can't imagine why she didn't do the surgery sooner. She disliked feeling out of place in the hearing world; she hated the fact that she could not hear her parent's voices.

CUT: (rodriguez) I WAS STRUGGLING WITH COMMUNICATION AT WORK. I

ALWAYS REQUIRED THE ASSISTANCE OF A SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETOR. I FELT ISOLATED BY MY FAMILY. I WANTED TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH MY FATHER. I DIDN'T WANT TO HAVE TO COMMUNICATE THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE.

Narration: Rodriguez says the CI difference has been life changing. She now can talk on the phone. She no longer needs an interpreter. Her speech has dramatically improved, through two years of speech therapy.

CUT: (rodriguez) WHEN I GOT MY IMPLANT, THERE WERE A LOT OF SOUNDS THAT I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE. WITH THE IMPLANT, THE PICTURE IS BIGGER.

Narration: Rodriguez even left her job as an IBM technician to join as a patient advocate for the Cochlear Corporation-- the company that produced her implant. She says an implant does not mean leaving the deaf community.

CUT: (rodriguez)I THINK THE TWO WORLDS CAN EXIST. I DON'T THINK

GETTING A COCHLEAR IMPLANT BARS SOMEONE FROM A SIGNING ENVIRONMENT.

Fade up sound from sign language class at Columbia: chalk board

Narration: 39 year old Kimberly Kuhns writes the sign language lesson on the chalkboard. She runs a sign language workshop at Columbia's Teachers College. Kunhs is a master's student working on her American sign language teaching credential. Kuhn was born deaf. She rarely speaks; her oral skills are limited. When asked about whether she would consider the implant, she vigorously shakes her head—no. She signs the words to her interpreter.

CUT: (kuhn) HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF DEAF PARENTS HAD A HEARING CHILD AND TOOK AWAY ITS HEARING?

Narration: Kuhn says her deaf identity was taken away from her when she was young. Her parents put her in a regular school. She had to survive by reading lips. Kuhn did not learn how to sign until she was 12. She says her deafness never needed to be hidden, and does not to be fixed. It is not a medical condition; it is a cultural identity. Kuhn does not sign her next statement; she opens her mouth; her breath becomes heavy.

CUT: (kuhn) I'M PROUD TO BE DEAF.

Narration: Kuhn smiles, and starts to sign again. Her interpreter says that being deaf is not a defect.

Cut (kuhn) DISABILITY MEANS NOT HAVING ABILITIES AND I HAVE ABILITIES.

Narration: She does not falter from this statement; she repeatedly makes the sign for abilities. That sign is part of the deaf culture, according to Dr. Robert Krestchmer, a Columbia University professor who has studied the deaf community for 25 years. He says the deaf community is transitioning. The National Association of the Deaf recently softened its stance against implants.

CUT: (KRECH) RATHER THAN REJECTING PEOPLE WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANTS. THEY RECOGNIZED THE NEED TO RECOGNIZE DIVERSITY EVEN WITHIN THEIR OWN GROUP. RATHER THAN REJECTING THESE INDIVIDUALS THEY SHOULD EMBRACE THEM AND INCLUDE THEM IN THEIR CULTURE.

Narration: Next month a National Cochlear Implant meeting will take place in Washington DC. Companies that make the CI and deaf advocates will meet to discuss how to better serve the changing deaf community. Both sides say they want to show that capital D deaf also means capital D diversity.

For Columbia Radio News, I'm Nancy Farghalli