"You're lucky those implants work!"

Somewhere close by our home lives a sign language instructor who does not like cochlear implants. I know this because I keep running into the students of this teacher.

The students are all young high school or first year college students and they all seem amazed that Chance can actually hear with his implants. I have now run into these students, at the store, pharmacy and through other people that know me. This has happened about 5 times now.

The first part of our interactions are almost always the same. The students look at Chance, look at me and then ask me, "Are those implants he is wearing?" I of course verify that he does indeed have implants on.
The student usually then takes a good long look at Chance then they turn to me and ask, "Do they work? Can he really hear with them?"
They seem truly amazed that Chance can hear. I think they are taken aback because Chance is right there and I am talking to him, or he to me. The best scenerio is when Chance is just having a conversation with his brother while I am talking to these girls (they have all been girls).

I tell these girls that we have been very happy with the implants and that Chance is doing really well with them.

Then there is always a comment from the girls like, "You are lucky they work for him. Implants don't work for most people."
Or "Yeah, the implants only work for 50% of the people who get them." I even had one girl say after realizing that Chance could hear with his implant, "It must be better for kids. The implants really don't work for adults." We know many adults who have implants and love them. I politely told her that I know adults who have implants and they like them.

I am polite even though there are glaring untruths to what these girls know and they are quite inexperienced with deafness knowing only what they have been taught by a teacher who is obviously against implants.

Sigh.

By the time our converstation is over, these girls really look confused. They tend to just watch Chance with a confused look on their face. They have all been polite and a few have expressed excitement in realizing that the implants are working for Chance. They are amazed that Chance is attending a regular school and that he doesn't use sign language for his primary mode of communication. They are under the impression that the implant can not possibly give Chance enough hearing to interact daily without using a lot of sign language.

I don't mind that people have a different opinion than I do, of how deaf children should communicate, but it does bother me that there is such blatant untruth and misinformation being taught to people who know absolutely nothing about deafness except what they are learning in this sign language class. The information should at least be presented fairly and not distorted about implants.

It creates a bias for students who now go out into the world thinking that they have been educated in deafness when in fact they only know what their teacher has decided to tell them. And a lot is obvioulsy left out or twisted to fit what the teacher's opinion is about sign language and implants.

I leave these interactions with these girls, with it clear to me that Chance has given them something to think about. They have seen an implant in action and they can not deny that it is working. When I can, I bring Chance into the conversation. Like if they ask where Chance goes to school, I will say to Chance, "Chance, can you tell her what school you go to?" Or "Chance, she has never seen an implant, will you show her yours?" Chance then walks over and turns his head so that she can see his implant. And he obviously heard me ask him to come over:)

I don't want to give Chance a complex so I don't make him do anything that makes him uncomfortable. The fact is, he doesn't think of himself as deaf first and then a boy or a friend etc. He is just Chance - who happens to wear cochlear implants to help him hear.

I actually welcome questions about the implant. I would much rather someone just ask me what they are and talk about them and have them learn something about them, than just staring and wondering.

Chance is educating many people as he goes along. There is obviously a lot that people don't know about implants - even among those who think they do :)