Deaf and Proud to Use Sign Language
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`By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES and GRACE HUANG · Dec., 12. 2006
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`Lizzie Sorkin was born deaf to deaf parents, but when she reached high school age. her
`mother asked her whether she would consider the latest medical technology had to offer -
`cochlear Implants to restore some of her hearing.
`
`Sorkin, now 25. refused and in doing so, set a bold path in establishing her own identity.
`
`·1 am deaf first before being a woman. before my faith, my sexual preference, my interests;
`said Sorkin via e-mail. 'I didn't see my deafness as a problem. I didn't need to be fixed:
`
`She Is currently a student at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) an Rochester.
`N.Y ..
`
`Sorkln's attitude is a strong voice that is emerging in the national deaf community- deafness
`Is not a disability, but a way of life that does not call for medical Intervention, but rather
`reinforcement and pride.
`
`About 32.5 million Americans are deaf or hard of hearing, and that Is all they have m common.
`
`They represent a wide spectrum of ages and stages - those born profoundly deaf and others
`who suffered hearing loss as a result of illness or age.
`
`Two to three in 1,000 babies born in the United States have a detectable heanng loss.
`
`About 600.000 to 650,000 of the deaf population are profoundly deaf, according to the
`National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
`
`Last month. students at Gallaudet University, the nation's premier liberal arts college for the
`deaf and hard of hearing, toppled President Jane K. Fernandes for an array of gnevances -
`Including the fact that she was not 'deaf enough.'
`
`Their victory solidified the university's commitment to sign language and set the stage for a
`more aggressive deaf pride movement
`
`Many who are deaf are eschewing new medical advances hke cochlear implants and
`sophisticated hearing aids in favor of preserving the traditional bonds they feel wtth others
`who communicate by signing.
`
`A small, but growing number of deaf parents are even intentionally using embryonic genetic
`testing to ensure that their children share their deafness.
`
`' I was born deaf, and I believe that I should just leave it the way it Is; said Lisa Velez, a 20-
`year-old who also attends NTID at Rochester Institute of Technology, the second-largest
`American university devoted to the deaf.
`
`As other minorities like blacks, women or gays have historically felt the need to find
`commonality, so have the deaf.
`
`Experts say there are two camps: those who view their world as pathological - deafness as a
`disability to be overcome - and those who revel in the cultural aspects of deafness, using sign
`language and sharing a set of values.
`
`Sorkm grew up using sign language to communicate with her family.
`
`American Sign Language, now considered a world language and the third most frequently
`used In the United States, is a nuanced and visual language that encompasses many dialects
`and grammatical structures.
`
`Although American Sign Language may see some decline In coming years because of
`improved hearing technologies, it is gaining popularity among parents who want their babies
`to learn sign and among hearing college students taking ASL for foreign language credit.
`according to Jamie Berke, a graduate of Gallaudet
`
`'Deaf people who can hear with hearing aids or cochlear implants may need sign language to
`help In closing communication gaps; she said.
`
`Sorkin Is the first deaf president of the student government at the larger Rochester Institute of
`Technology, where 1,100 deaf students are mainstreamed among the 15.300 that attend the
`university.
`
`'I was born with deep roots. and I wanted to honor that,' said Sorkin, who Is earning a master's
`dearee In student affairs and hooes to make documentarv films for the deaf.
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`"I cannot Imagine being hearing. Because we are a minority. we come together To be iJWay
`from that support system is so hard to endure," she said.
`
`Like Sorkin, only 10 percent of all deaf children are born to families where one Of both parents
`are deaf.
`
`Ninety percent have parents who are not deaf or hard of hearing.
`
`With the advent of screening laws for newborns. parents can now learn early on whether their
`children are deaf. gMng them the opportunity to make early decisions about educatJon,
`support groups, and learning sign language.
`
`SOfne choose the medical route.
`
`According to federal data. nearly 22.000 adults and nearly 15,000 children In the United
`States have received cochlear implants.
`
`Tho technology behind the implants is completely different from hearing aids, which amphfy
`sounds.
`
`Implants convert sound into electrical impulses that directly stimulate the auditory nerve. The
`brain, In turn, Interprets these signals as sound; implants do not restore normal hearing.
`Inte nsive postsurglcal therapy is necessary to learn or relearn the sense of hearing
`
`Angela Emhart, a deaf OB-GYN from Galveston, Texas, who Is pregnant with her frrst child, ls
`keeping an open mind about implants.
`
`She learned to sign and speak at the age of 2.
`
`Although she has not ruled out cochlear implants for herself down the road, !Of now, she said.
`·1 am comfortable wrth who I am. and I'm afraid of losing who I am."
`
`Earhart has also thought about what the future holds for the baby she Is expecting in May.
`
`If the child Is deaf, she will wart to address the quesbon of Implants unlll the child is old
`enough to participate in the decision-making.
`
`"I don't perceive being deaf in a negative way," she said.
`
`At home, Earhart communicates with her hearing husband by signing and speaking At work.
`she relies on her sign-language interpreter.
`
`Meanwhile. half of Earhart's patients are Hispanics who need an English-Spanish Interpreter,
`resulting In four-way communication that she takes in stride.
`
`Christopher Lehfeldt, who was born profoundly deaf t o hea ring parents, has made a different
`decision.
`
`He, too. was not d iagnosed until he was 2 years old, and his parents got him hearing aids and
`taught him to read speech. It wasn't until Lehfeldt was in his early 20s that he learned to sign.
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`Rochester, where an estimated 20,000 to 90,000 of the 1 million residents are deaf or hard of
`hearing
`
`"I don't label myself as part of any group," Lehfeldt said. "I regard myself as being bicultural_
`b1hngual with my deafness. Being a challenge or disabthty that makes hfe Interesting for me."
`
`Two years ago, Lehfeldt decided to undergo cochlear implants, a vast improvement over the
`IWo hearing aids he had struggled with an his life.
`
`'It's far better than the rtchy ears. ear molds shifting shape all the tlme causing feedback," he
`said. ·1 can hear so much more, especially higher frequencies. I had to learn how to hear,
`literally for the first time, like a baby, when I got activated."
`
`He believes cochlear Implants are "just another tool in the arsenal for bottor hearing that helps
`with full lncluslon In the mainstream."
`
`But, Lehfeldt said, "No one person speaks for the deaf.'
`
`His patient Tom Rickey, who works as a writer at the nearby University of Rochestor Medical
`Center and has been treated by Lehfeldt for 15 years, has only praise for tho dental care he
`has received.
`
`"When I first went to him, I had this fear that he wouldn't know if I was In pain - no matter how
`loud I mlQht yell, he wouldn't hear me," Rickey said "But he has been a Qreat. wonderful, land,
`
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`sensitive dentist, and my teeth are much improved, too."
`
`Rochester has become a mecca for deaf professionals like Lehfeldt.
`
`Rickey's Catholic priest is deaf. and the newspaper has a reporter who covers the deaf
`community.
`
`Six doctors. as well as a veterinarian and two lawyers, are deaf and serve both hearing and
`nonhearlng clients.
`
`Many retailers sign and have lnterpretype machines; movie theaters have open.captioned
`movies.
`
`Much of the reason the city has been a model for integration between the deaf and the
`hearing Is that it is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which was established
`by a federal grant in 1965 to provide a need for technical higher education.
`
`With the technology school, there is also a cochlear-implant center, and about 200 of the 1,100
`deaf students have the devices.
`
`The Institute is a pioneer in the use of video, CD, DVD and Web streaming so those with
`hearing loss have constant access to communication and information.
`
`With several hundred videophones in dorm rooms, classrooms and offices, faculty. staff and
`students can see each other and sign directly.
`
`The university also provides C-print, a speech-to-text transcription service, In classrooms so
`students with hearing loss can read what the professor is saying in real time, as well as 122
`full-time Interpreters.
`
`NTID director Alan Hurwitz finds himself right in the middle of the debate on deaf culture.
`
`Born profoundly deaf to deaf parents, with one grown child who is hard of heanng and
`another who is deaf, he has watched the evolution of the deaf culture.
`
`The 64-year-old feels the emotional tug of memories of his all-deaf home, but he also knows
`that technological advances have helped level the playing field for deaf and hard-of-hearing
`people.
`
`Deafness is a •nonissue; according to Hurwitz, with computers, Blackberries, instant
`messaging, videophones, and real-time speech-to-text captioning, allowing deaf people to
`participate immediately.
`
`·some of us grow up using sign. Others elect to have cochlear implants,' he said. "They are all
`proud to be deaf."
`
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