title: Misleading the deaf community about cochlear implantation in children.
abstract: Activists are misleading the deaf community in an effort to generate opposition to cochlear implants in children. Their methods include both misinformation and the use of inflammatory, illogical rhetoric. To date they have been successful in causing anger, frustration, and overt violence among the culturally deaf with the use of such terms as "genocide" and "child abuse." Because the average reading level of a deaf residential high school graduate is at the third or fourth grade level, a small elite is able to control the interpretation and flow of complex information to many deaf people. It is a challenge to make accurate information, both positive and negative, accessible directly to deaf society. Just as the deaf have abandoned opposition to cochlear implants in adults, the same might be expected to occur in children when they and their parents become aware of the results of implantation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of Miami Ear Institute, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Balkany
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Hodges
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D003054:Cochlear Implants / Q000009:adverse effects; D003638:Deafness / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011639:Public Opinion