Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!104!809!Karen.Keil
From: Karen.Keil@f809.n104.z1.fidonet.org (Karen Keil)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Hearing Impaired
Message-ID: <16079@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 3 Dec 90 16:58:14 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

        I never thought of the 'mechanical parts' wearing out (the 
middle ear) because of all the amplification.  I thought the cochlea 
was being damaged (the little hairs get destroyed).  That was what I 
kept reading while reading about young people and rock stars losing 
their hearing because of the loud music.
        You are right about people being only severely hard-of-hearing 
considering themselves deaf while people with real deafness don't 
consider themselves deaf.
        I'm oral speaking and have never been part of the 'deaf 
culture' per se.  Nevertheless, I'm meeting more and more deaf people 
as time goes by, and depending on who I meet, I feel like an outsider 
or one of them.  I'm more at home with people like me (only natural).
        Anyway, there are no easy answers.....but cochlear implants 
look very promising.  I am considering one myself, providing I'm a good 
candidate.  Most insurance companies don't want to finance this for 
someone born deaf, but they are assuming way too much!  I was born deaf 
but act like a hearing person. 
        That's all for now.
Karen

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