Maegan Gindi

It all started with a pair of metal rods, a mad scientist, and a 50-volt circuit connecting the two. Alessandro Volta, a pioneer in the realm of electricity, inserted said rods into his ears, turned the switch on, and heard a noise like a “thick boiling soup,” amplified and bellowing. With this, Volta had discovered the phenomenon which would later enable a series of inventions: that electricity could stimulate the perception of sound.

Cochlear implants work just like that. Unlike a hearing aid, which simply amplifies a sound so that it may be detected by a damaged ear, cochlear implants bypass these damaged sections of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Sounds are first received by a microphone, which are then sent to speech processor, which arranges them. Lastly, a transmitter converts the sounds into an electrical impulse.

Currently, over 200 students at RIT have cochlear implants, and that number is growing rapidly. Hearing parents of deaf children see it as a restoration of communication within the family, a savior masked as an ingenious medical advancement. Some argue that the implant will lead to the destruction of Deaf culture and that cochlear implants should not ever be used. Within this culture, there are two types of deafness: deaf and Deaf. The former refers strictly to one’s inability to hear. The second, big D Deaf, is an identity and cultural term that indicates a certain pride in being deaf; the inability to hear is not seen as a disability, but a way of life. The use of sign language in the Deaf community is pervasive, but not a pre-requisite. Interestingly enough, physical deafness is also not a set-in-stone requirement, as many sign language interpreters are often included in Deaf communities.

Many members of the Deaf community feel strongly that cochlear implants are absolutely unnecessary. According to them, there is no need for a deaf person to be “fixed,” as deafness is neither a sign of weakness nor a handicap. “I have noticed that it’s the older generation that is more against them,” notes second year Graphic Design student Megan Clegg, who has had a cochlear implant since the age of 14. “I’ve just seen that from doing a lot of research on Deaf culture. It’s an important part of Deaf culture to have online sites and such to keep it together, and that’s where you see them expressing their opinions. A lot of the older generations are all robots and are like, ‘You’re not deaf anymore,’” says Clegg.

While the feud surrounding cochlear implants is mostly fueled by the ongoing debate as to whether or not being deaf is a disability, not all objections to cochlear implants are cultural in nature. The implants are not guaranteed to actually work, and the process of inserting them can cause permanent loss of most of an individual’s natural hearing ability. Success hinges on a number of factors, including the pre-operation state of the patient’s cochlea—if the auditory nerves are significantly unhealthy, there’s a low chance for success. And even after the surgery is complete, the patient requires a great deal of therapy in an attempt to train his or her brain to properly translate the signals that the implant sends. The older the patient, the harder this task becomes.

Clegg has been hearing impaired since the age of three and grew up in Syracuse, where she attended an ordinary school and relied on the use of a hearing aid. One day, however, she completely stopped hearing. She began considering a cochlear implant. “I didn’t really notice I was different until I got older, until I actually went through that. That’s when I realized, ‘Oh wow, I’m really deaf.’ It was definitely kind of a traumatic time. I was afraid to go up to people, because I was afraid to misunderstand them, because then I would look stupid and it would be awkward. That whole period where I was waiting for my implant, waiting for it to really start working…that was a very withdrawn time for me, because I was just so alone in the hearing world.”

Like all patients who receive a cochlear implant, Clegg went through audio-verbal therapy to further develop her hearing skills. To ensure that Clegg wasn’t relying on lip-reading, her therapist would stand behind her and read to her as Clegg attempted to understand and repeat what was just read aloud. In therapy, Clegg was also encouraged to work on the telephone and to not be afraid of being misunderstood by anyone, Deaf and hearing cultures alike.

Since therapy, Clegg’s hearing has improved drastically. “When I got my implant, I had 80% of normal hearing, which went up from 0%. I can hear without reading lips if I’m in certain situations, and I do have the ability to talk on the telephone a bit,” notes Clegg. “I notice my cat purrs. I never noticed that before. The animals in my house make a lot of sounds, apparently. And things like washers [and] dryers—those little low rumbly sounds they make—I never noticed those before. If there’s a sound that’s really high-pitched, I know it’s there. It’s weird, but I can feel that it’s there.”

Clegg is now also able to enjoy music once again, and the implant affords quite an interesting method of doing so. “I would say that the coolest part of having an implant is that I [was] able to hear music again. It used to feel like trash when I lost my hearing, it was like banging on garbage cans. I don’t use headphones [because they don’t work]…I use a cord that I plug directly into my implant, so if I turn the music up to a certain level, it bypasses all your sounds so I get music straight to my brain, uninterrupted, unfiltered. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Overall, Clegg is extremely happy with her implant, but realizes that it isn’t for everyone. “I have friends who tried it and it just wasn’t their thing. With them, they got it at a later date. They grew up in silence, and when you grow up in silence, sound is not always welcome to you. It can be overwhelming. It can be painful. I know that when I first got mine, I didn’t hear anything, I felt it. It’s like being a newborn, you have to hear all over again, so you feel the sound. It’s really painful, and it takes a while before you can get used to it. Some people don’t want to go through that. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a great thing.”