Voices Verses ASL, the Debate Rages On
There is no region of the country that has more deaf people than any other part of the country. There are pockets of deaf communities in and around deaf colleges and universities and schools for the deaf for younger children.
There are two types of schools for the deaf, one that promotes ASL – American Sign Language and do not require the children to use their voices only sign language. The other type of school encourages the use of a hearing aid and cochlear implants and discourages the use of sign language. They encourage the students to use their voices, even if they may sound different. These types of schools with the hearing aids and cochlear implants are called integrated schools in which they want to integrate the children into the mainstream communities. The other type of school, the type that uses ASL, embraces the deaf culture. Even if a child has the best hearing aid, it would still like them to use American Sign Language to communicate.
There is no rhyme or reason to why a person is born deaf, the gene has not been identified yet. In some, scientists believe it is simply a birth defect. However, those in the deaf community believe it is a blessing because the deaf community is a unique culture all to themselves just like being Italian has a culture. They do not look upon being deaf as a disability; they look upon it as a different culture from the rest of America. They celebrate a child’s birth to deaf parents if the child is born deaf; however if the child is born hearing, the child’s birth goes largely unnoticed.
Many people who were born hearing and slowly lose their hearing have a voice in place; therefore speaking is a lot easier than those who are born with some degree of hearing loss and use the cochlear implant to help a year or hearing a because they can not hear your own voice in order to modulate it to a pleasant level for speaking to others.
Although there is no scientific evidence of any people who have been losing their hearing earlier in life such as in their 40s due to working in a loud factory environment without proper hearing protection or listening to loud music for hours at a time or simply a degenerate disease have been turning to human growth hormones to help them feel better. Human growth hormones are a natural occurring hormone in the body; however they began to dissipate about the age of 25. HGH will help someone feel better from chronic fatigue and some other chronic illnesses; however it will not bring back a hearing loss.