The debate over using cochlear implants to help deaf people communicate with those who can hear continues to rage. Some have welcomed the new technology, but others say the deaf have their own culture and do not need to be "cured".

[A]nd fashion makes people deaf-at least for a while.

Cochlear implants are devices that allow deaf people to hear. Consequently, implanting them in children seems to be a very beneficent intervention. However, some deaf parents have opposed it in the name of the preservation of their culture. For them, deafness is a rich culture with its own language (signing), and implanting their children will prevent them from being members of their parents' c...

BACKGROUND The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) collects nationally representative data about the American's public use of health-related information. This survey is available in English and Spanish, but not in American Sign Language (ASL). Thus, the exclusion of ASL users from these national health information survey studies has led to a significant gap in knowledge of Interne...

Speech-language pathologists who serve clients from cultural backgrounds that are not familiar to them may encounter culturally influenced attitudinal differences. A questionnaire with statements about 4 speech disorders (dysfluency, cleft pallet, speech of the deaf, and misarticulations) was given to a focus group of Chinese Americans and a comparison group of non-Chinese Americans. The focus ...

Azbel, L. (2004) How do the deaf read? The paradox of performing a phonemic task without sound. Intel Science Talent Search. Abstract Hearing individuals read by converting printed letters into a phonological code that feeds into their auditory language system. So how do the deaf read? To solve this puzzle, we asked hearing and deaf participants to read while performing other tasks. Tasks that ...

Professionals who provide services to deaf and hard of hearing individuals may encounter situations related to abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Getting access to an agency that can provide an appropriate chemical dependency assessment for a deaf or hard of hearing person is difficult because there are no formalized assessment tools normed or specifically designed to use with such individuals. ...

Nowadays, there are several communication gaps that isolate deaf people in several social activities. The breakthroughs made so far in the area of reading nonverbal behaviour are crucial and constitute a strong motivation to direct research efforts towards studying this population. This master thesis is part of a unique project that intends to study the differences among two populations: deaf p...