Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!681!853.1!Stephen.White From: Stephen.White@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org (Stephen White) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: RE: COCHLEAR IMPLANT Message-ID: <15771@handicap.news> Date: 23 May 91 19:26:05 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.isc-br.com Reply-To: Stephen.White@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org Organization: FidoNet node 3:681/853.1 Lines: 61 Approved: wtm@bunker.hcap.fidonet.org Index Number: 15771 [This is from the Silent Talk Conference] JC> I've been attempting to learn lipreading for 44 of my 49 years. A JC> study sponsored by an oralist school some years ago found that JC> lipreading under the best of conditions is only 26% effective. JC> So much for the glories of lip-reading. Jay, it isn't much use posting this type of stuff when it is so easily proved wrong. It doesn't do much for your credibility, and will cause doubt to be cast on other data that you supply. I, for one, have far more than a meagre 26% effectiveness rate when I am lipreading, even under the most adverse conditions. I have lipread people successfully under starlight, in disco strobe lights, and from just about every angle except from the back of their heads. I only have trouble understanding about 1 in 50 people. I'm sure Ann Stalnaker and a few other people in this echo would have a similar degree of skill. So, already, your statement is shown to be false and misleading. Just because _YOU_ cannot learn lipreading, doesn't mean that nobody else can. Everyone is different, and they find that different things help them more than others. I see messages from Tim Smith proclaiming that cochlear implants are useless, and saying that he should know because he's been on both sides of the fence. He _DOESN'T_ know! I've seen people whose lives were a misery before they had a cochlear implant. I have a book written by a woman that lives in Adelaide who was on the brink of suicide before she had a cochlear implant. I was offered the chance for a cochlear implant when I was about 8 years old, and I responded "Yuck! I don't want a radio in my head!". My attitude is still the same, and there is no way I would have an implant - but the important thing is that I'm not trying to tell other people that cochlear implants are RUBBISH! And in a similar fashion, I'm not trying to warp statistics to prove that signing is the best for everyone and that lipreading is a waste of time and effort! I happen to think that oralism has its place. I have greatly benefitted from oralism, but I don't attempt to prove that it is the only way, and I don't relate horror stories about signers that have been stuck with people who can't sign. As soon as you hardliners learn that not everyone benefits from your way of doing things the fighting in this echo will be cut down drastically, then we can rationally and _truthfully_ talk about our viewpoint on various topics. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!3!681!853.1!Stephen.White Internet: Stephen.White@p1.f853.n681.z3.fidonet.org