Cochlear Implants: Beneficial or Not?

To most people, deafness is viewed as a handicap or a disability, but those within the deaf community view deafness with a totally different perspective. The majority of the deaf and hard of hearing people in the world view deafness as a normal part of life.

For centuries now, the majority of the hearing people have approached deafness from a medical perspective, with the thought and belief that deaf people are in need of being fixed. For hundreds of years, doctors and hearing teachers for the deaf have spent time trying to come up with the best teaching methods, experiments, and devices to try and help deaf people regain their hearing and live their lives as normal hearing people. Of all of the things that have come and gone, none has remained more controversial over the last thirty years than that of the cochlear implant, otherwise simply known as CI. (Zak, Omer).

The first cochlear implant was done at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, California in 1980. This is what sparked the controversy between two sides, that of the hearing parents and the deaf community. To first be able to understand the controversy, one must first have an understanding about the implant itself.

People who are not familiar with the cochlear implant believe that all you have to do is get the implant and then everything is fine and that you can hear just like a hearing person. This, unfortunately, is far from the truth. That is what the makers of the implants want you to believe. While there are a great deal of deaf people who have had success with the implant, there are also many who get the implant only later to have regrets and disappointment.

Only those with severe or profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears are acceptable candidates. The implant is also available to those of any age, though if born deaf, doctors encourage implantation before the child gets too old as to help expose the child to different sounds and the ability to hear speech. To fully comprehend things, one should really be informed about the device and its implantation.