The Complications of Growing Up Bionic
It’s not a tragedy to be deaf and it’s not a miracle when technology brings you sound
When I was nine, my class went on a field trip to a sensory research lab. A local TV crew came along as part of a human interest story on what schoolchildren thought about animal testing. It must’ve been a really slow news week. All of my classmates mugged for the camera as the crew filmed us, thrilled at the prospect of fame, as modest as it might’ve been. When the reporter asked for volunteers for on-camera interviews, everyone’s hands went up, including mine. The smartly dressed reporter smiled and pointed at me. She picked me! I was chosen! were my exuberant thoughts as I dashed off to be interviewed. It never occurred to me that I might’ve been selected for any reason other than being cute.
When my mother and I watched the story later that week (with captions turned on), the focus had shifted. It was no longer about the ethics of animal testing, but about me.
It was one of those “miracle cure” stories. The narrative went along the lines of “this nine-year-old girl who was born profoundly deaf received this revolutionary technology called a cochlear implant, a bionic ear that has brought her into the hearing world.” The reporter went on to explain how I was one of the first few…
