Deaf School

1.     Benefit 300+ students? Really? Did you even watch the video or read the article?  Tara showed how the requirement for LSL specialists + auditory-only environment narrowed down the number of schools to two. Maybe there are three private and two public A/O schools in the state, but where are the certified LSL specialists? Hmm. I notice you haven’t offered SPECIFIC information about those schools and how or whether they meet the qualifications.

2.     FSDB serves more than 600 students on that $45 million. Not 399. It serves the full gamut of needs for a huge variety of kids. K-12, single disability (deaf or blind), multiple disabilities (deaf-blind, learning disabilities, psychiatric conditions, CP, mental retardation, physical disabilities, etc.), students from all over the state whose families don’t have access to good deaf and/or blind ed in their hometowns. Can private schools accommodate a student from a family from way out in the middle of nowhere who can’t afford to move to near the school? No. So a big chunk of that money for FSDB goes to dorms for those kids who have to live away from their families because their home schools can’t serve them. And then there’s all sorts of specialists to meet all sorts of needs – like Tara said. FSDB offers everything, including speech and auditory therapy. And they have to have counselors and therapists and etc. on staff. That’s gonna be way more expensive than offering only ONE mode and not employing any specialists in anything other than AVT and LSL.

3.     There’s a reason FSDB students often don’t enter the mainstream. They came FROM the mainstream! Some of them even came from A/O programs! State schools for the deaf are the last resort after kids can’t hack it at A/O schools or in public schools. How fair is it to judge a school that’s the dumping ground for kids that started out in A/O or public schools. When those schools can’t meet those kids’ needs, they get pushed out and into FSDB through no fault of their own or FSDB’s. And yet FSDB gets beat up for it and people yell about how expensive it is? Duh. Cleanup and damage control is expensive.

IMHO, people who spout off about choice but then tell parents the only responsible choice is AO and then back it up with questionable (or even unsourced) “research” showing ASL is oh so terrible and will gasp HURT your child!! have no place trying to stick their hands in taxpayer pockets to support something that offers absolutely no choices for parents and nothing nearly resembling a range of options as a safety net if their students don’t take 100% to the AO method. These kids just go without full language access for however long, and then they get kicked out … ahem .. “encouraged” to transfer to a program more “appropriate” to their needs.

And don’t tell me that never happens. There are posts all over the internet by those products of the system – whether still kids or now adults. As much as AG Bell and AO programs would love to pretend they don’t exist.

AO supporters go on and on and on about how ASL isn’t the only option. Um. FSDB and public schools offer ALL options, including AVT. And they have GOOD therapists and specialists too. AO private schools offer only one option and tell people that options can’t be combined. Did the dictionary change the definition of options when I wasn’t looking?

And you go on about the “ASL community” … FYI, the deaf community isn’t just ASL users, and not all ASL users use ONLY ASL. Far from it. The deaf community is way more complex than that and tons of deaf people use multiple modes … oh, wait, excuse me … OPTIONS. They sign. Many started out or grew up oral. They learned ASL later. Does that mean they're now disowned by AO even tho they still "listen" and talk with hearing people even as they use sign language to socialize with other deaf people? Good to know you lump all signers together regardless of speaking ability.  They wear CIs or hearing aids.  They talk. They lipread. They’re truly bilingual and multimodal. Get with the times and reality. It’s not two separate camps, as much as your own fantasy fairy tale might like to argue.

BTW, aren’t you hearing? You sure sound like it. Hearing people have no business telling others how to manage their deafness when they don’t even understand what it’s like to grow up or be deaf themselves. Try it first, honestly.  And just so you know, I come from an AO background and have been mainstreamed my whole life and am what you people like to call a “success story”.  I’m also fluent in ASL and have a CI. What you got to say now?  Don’t preach it until you’ve LIVED it.

medical industrial complex

"as a deaf person, I'd like to say that--while I understand why hearing people and even some deaf people would find this procedure miraculous and wonderful--I really don't share that sentiment. society's obsession with normalization is what causes cognitive and language delays in deaf children. by focusing on making a child able to hear and speak, often their language development is completely neglected until they attend school. the language window closes at 5 years of age, roughly the time when most children start kindergarten. I work at a school for the deaf and I see many kids come to us between 5-10 years of age with zero or very minimal language abilities. these children spend the rest of their school careers trying to catch up with those who were exposed to a natural language (ASL is the natural language of deaf people) at birth or at least at 2 or 3 years of age. it's really sad. this procedure is only a fix for the middle ear structures, basically an invisible, permanent hearing aid that you can never turn off. it won't make a profoundly, severely, or moderately deaf person hearing. even with a hearing aid I have to work hard at hearing. there will never be a 100% fix for deafness. I wish hearing people would stop trying to normalize us and start embracing our natural language and culture. believe me, deaf culture is a beautiful thing to be a part of. I have nothing against people who decide (on their own) that they want this surgery, but to force it onto innocent children, when the long term effects are not known and the success rate is likely very low is unethical.

if this is what it comes to.. I fucking hate science."-vivienne schroeder

medical industrial complex

"here are more failures than success stories with CIs, the industry buries these failures and builds up the success stories, giving hearing parents everywhere the idea that a CI surgery will make their child hearing. It doesn't. Hearing parents of deaf babies are innocent people being preyed on by the CI industry, using their fear of the unknown to promote surgeries and methods that have been time and time again proven NOT to work. If a child gets a CI surgery, but ALSO has full access to ASL and visual communication, that would be wonderful. I know a few deaf couples who decided to implant their deaf child while giving them access to ASL and I think it's wonderful. Unfortunately, the majority don't do this. They decide to normalize their child in every way possible, denying them access to ASL and the deaf community and culture. As a result, these children grow up with significant cognitive delays, limited social opportunities, and ostracized by their peers. You know me, I went to hearing schools all my life because I was hard of hearing and I could function fairly well in that environment. When I got to high school I started feeling the effects of my limited hearing abilities. I would avoid large groups because I'd always be lost in the conversation. I avoided raising my hand in class because a few times I repeated what others had already said because I couldn't hear them. Now that I'm older and my hearing is getting worse, I'm so grateful that I grew up knowing ASL and involved in the deaf community. Otherwise I'd be a very lonely person right now. At the end of the day, even with a CI, that child is still deaf. There will never be a 100% fix for it. There are people who are fighting hard to prevent deaf children from learning ASL, joining the deaf community, and acquiring deaf culture. It's a crime against humanity because in the long run, the child suffers irreparable damage, not only to their ears, but to their social, emotional and intellectual well being."-Vivienne Schroeder

ableism

You learn that ableism is oppression, discrimination, and prejudice against the disabled or those presumed disabled.

Ableism is the word that puts a name to every time that journalists, who are supposed to be objective yet committed to compassion and justice, say that people with psychiatric disabilities are inhuman and a problem of society, or that autistics like me are incapable of experiencing or understanding feelings. Or when they say we're a public health crisis. Or when they say we're monsters who need to be locked up for the good of society because we're dangerous. Or when politicians and universities and news producers consult everyone but actually disabled people on disability issues, hold panels on multiple perspectives on disability, and do all of this without any actually disabled people, and say that that's because a we have nothing valuable to say.

Ableism is the word that puts a name to every time that parents and caregivers murder disabled children, or when the media exculpatory them, or when hundreds of non-disabled parents flock to their defense. And when actually disabled people are called heartless, incapable of empathy, and not understanding someone else's perspective when we mourn for the loss of those disabled people.

Because when people can say, "autistics should be killed" with impunity and hardly more than a second glance from the public, that's ableism. And when people can say those are just words and they can't hurt, and they're ignoring the actually real, actually present danger to Autistics who dare to speak up -- death threats, rape threats, actual assaults, and murder -- that's not merely privilege; that's fucking privilege.

And allies -- understand that ableism is not a game. Ableism is not being offended. Ableism is abuse and violence and murder. Ableism is what gets us killed and our killers acquitted in the court of public opinion and often the court of law. These are our lives, and that's exactly what's at stake.

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/02/autistics-shoulddear-allies.html

Response to audism

Asking Change dot org to avoid endorsing less than optimal language, and even asking people to think about issues of culture and choice, does not equal "demonizing" anybody's parents. The sooner that conclusion-jump goes away, the better off we will all be.

a mother, who gets that when people teach me what it's like for kids who are not white, that is not the same thing as me being attacked/demonized/silenced etc.

Also, I'd like to say that as someone who is disabled, I am very much in a position to judge non-disabled parents for what they do to their disabled children. And it is my RESPONSIBILITY to speak up for the disabled child.

Thing is, when we point any parental decision, motivation or mentality out as being problematic, or even less than an absolute and indisputable truth, we get accused of "judging." And sometimes that, or even actual calling out and judging, needs to happen. Parents aren't universally perfect and benevolent by virtue of being parents.

Also, what someone chooses for themselves making an informed decision and what a person's parents or other relatives want and choose for them are two completely different things, especially when it's stuff that isn't lifesaving or preserving existent functioning.

"parents are not benevolent because they are parents, and parenting decisions are not made in a vacuum separate of oppression. No disabled or Deaf person should be shamed or judged for their decisions, but able-bodied and hearing people can and should be. If you benefit from a system of oppression, the power is on your side, so it is not a 2-way street where everyone is equal. This culture of calling oppressed people "judgmental" for calling out stuff that upholds their own oppression is fucked up. Nondisabled people, even parents, get to be and should be called out on ableism. Also, calling people heroic just for existing as disabled people is hella creepy. Like, cool we don't get to have autonomy (get institutionalized), so being your inspiration is like what? our consolation prize?"

I am not Deaf and I don't think it would be right for me to speculate on what I would do. However, I am disabled, and on that level, I can say that my body is complex and I am more interested in a world that respects that than a cure. Deaf and disabled get to decide what they want for their bodies.

Science and what is pursued under the rubric of science is influenced by social norms and beliefs.

Science also does not exist in a vacuum, and science has been used to hurt and kill marginalized people, such as scientific racism and eugenics. Again, maybe folks should defer to Deaf people on this issue.

A parent telling their child that the child needs to go through surgery to be accepted/acceptable, rather than fighting for their child against an unaccepting society, can hurt like hell.

Instead of empowerment there is the constant need to feel like you have to be fixed.

medical vs social: deaf

There are several important points to consider here that I think you are completely missing. 

1.) Most doctors and most parents are operating within a framework that already medicalizes and pathologizes biological, physical, and mental differences and deviations that do not need to be medicalized and pathologized. While any individual doctors and parents can be perfectly well-intentioned (and I will be quite generous in extending this benefit of the doubt to "most" doctors and parents, as, make no mistake, there ARE abusive parents and doctors), this does not mean that their decisions, ideas, and attitudes are free of social context. For example, a father who is a member of the Ku Klux Klan might not be physically or emotionally abusive to his children, and may in fact be otherwise a very good parent, but if he decides to indoctrinate his children in racist ideas, keep his children in segregated schools or homeschool groups, he most likely believes very strongly that this is in his child's best interests, but his decisions are most certainly informed by his racism. 

Likewise, parents choosing forced medical procedures for their children on the assumption that their quality of life will or must necessarily be better if their bodies or brains functioned in the same was as most people's may very well have the best of intentions and believe that they are doing what is best for their children, but it does not in any way detract from the fundamentally ableist and audist attitudes that are pervasive in U.S. society, which is the context in which these parents are making those decisions. 

2.) The presumption that to be hearing must automatically be better or worthwhile or valuable than to be deaf, hard of hearing, or otherwise "hearing impaired" (a phrase I've heard some people use), is one that is profoundly audist and ableist, because it completely ignores and denies the real, lived experiences of many thousands (millions?) of d/Deaf people around the world. The Deaf people that are in this thread, and those who have written very eloquently on these issues, would argue very much that their lives and experiences are valuable and worthwhile, and certainly not lesser or diminished by virtue of deafness. 

3.) If you were then to argue that those people are simply biased by personal experience, can you then argue that the "doctors and parents" who oppose Deaf rights, disability rights, etc. are not biased by personal experience? This goes to the question of sociological privilege. Those who are privileged by being hearing, temporarily able-bodied, and neurotypical are also privileged in that their opinions and experiences are not merely centered as normative, but presumed to be objective and detached from personal biases. Conversely, those who are marginalized, who are deaf and disabled, are presumed to be utterly subjective (and not even truly capable of holding a "rational" opinion or thought to begin with at worst) and always tied to personal biases that de-legitimize and invalidate those opinions and experiences.-Lydia