Sanchez

One example case study my professor created to inspire conversation in my Clinical Procedures class was about Emily Sanchez. She is a Deaf girl who came to the clinic for aural habilitation and was really benefiting from her hearing aid. Her speechreading was fantastic inside the speech center, but she was dealing with a conflict outside of the speech and language center. She did not want to wear her hearing aid because of what her deaf friends might think.

The classes resolved the issue with: she can take the HA off with her deaf friends because she doesn't need to hear.

Honestly this is such a simplistic answer! I'm sure she can think of this answer herself. So there must be more to it than that, right? Or else she wouldn't come to the clinic with that question if there was an easy answer. The truth is that there will be situations where she might want to hear and sign. Perhaps in a mix of hearing and deaf friends. Or if they go to a restaurant or somewhere else in public and need to interact with the Hearing world. Maybe she wants to be able to access both worlds at the same time?

Why does she feel ashamed to wear her HA? They think that she is ashamed of her deafness? Of her culture? Next thing ya know, she'll be refusing sign language and closing her eyes when they try to communicate with her. My only suggestion to her is that she needs to sit down with her "friends" who might look at her differently with a HA in. Talk about why she wears it and why she doesn't want to. Deaf radicals who think that assistive listening technology is turning people into cyborgs need to get their head out of the ground and look around at the world. If it works for some people, let them be! Live and let live??? If it's not for you, fine! No one is pushing anything on you. She is still just as Deaf as she was yesterday. She can just hear a little bit more now. Chill out.