Can You Hear Me Now?

Greetings!

Crippie hopes all her crippled comrades had a lovely Friday. My Friday was pretty uneventful, work, nap, pet, etc. Crippie wanted to share some lovely videos with y'all.

While Crippie was in college I took a class called "Sensation & Perception". It was about how your senses work. One day my teacher showed the class a documentary called "Sound & Fury" about cochlear implants and the controversy that first surrounded them. Cochlear implants are basically kick-ass bionic ears for people who were born deaf and or have very profound hearing loss. These things are amazing, they give people the gift of hearing! Many people have filmed the activation of their cochlear implants and put them on YouTube. Crippie loves watching these things, it's just so incredible to watch someone hear for the first time. I've literally spent hours watching 'em. Here are a few of my favorites...

Aren't these awesome! I love the whole concept of "one minute you can't hear and then all of the sudden you can". Their reactions are priceless... I love how they are all like "This... Is... AWESOME". Gotta also love how they cannot even begin to grasp how much their lives just changed. Adults can receive cochlear implants as well. Naturally, they understand what's going on so their reactions are a little different...

Yeah, these things are awesome. There are people that are opposed to cochlear implants. I can't understand why though. I know that they feel like they destroy deaf culture, but I don't see that. Sign language is a lovely language and it will never go away, it won't matter if there are fewer people that need to use it. Ultimately, being deaf is a disability... if you can treat/cure it... why wouldn't you?

Crippie is curious if any of her readers have any opinions on this issue? Do you think cochlear implants are killing deaf culture/deaf pride?

Crippie's Tippie - Check out the documentary "Sound and Fury" if you get a chance. It's on Netflix!