Friday, May 16, 2014

How Technology Threatens Deaf Identity

New York writer Patrick deHahn says, "When cochlear implants are no longer visible, the solidarity of a deaf community may be lost." He writes in an opinion piece for The Atlantic:
The Deaf subculture is able to separate itself from the lowercase “d” deaf group by spotting speaking individuals with hearing aids and cochlear implants. When no one is able to see these hearing devices, internal implant adoptees will likely be seen as purely hearing people. This isn’t going to improve the divide in the deaf population. If anything, hidden hearing technology could further estrange the two groups.
Read more here.