Context Sections Outline: Cochlear Implants and Deaf Identity

Cochlear Implants and Deaf Identity

1.      The object analysis section will look at the events surrounding the Omni-hotel protest performed by Audism Free America against the Listening and Spoken Language Symposium sponsored by the Alexander Graham Bell Association.  This will include introductions to both parties as the audience, although versed in the language and terminology, may be unfamiliar with the mission behind each group.  The analysis will explore the tactics used by the AFA, connection to the broader issues involving audism, and consequences of the protest (including police activity).

2.      Topics List

a.       Historical Context Section

                                                              i.      History of deaf oppression (early 1900s)

                                                            ii.      Oralism and forced lip-reading in schools

                                                          iii.      History of Alexander Graham Bell

                                                          iv.      Birth of audism

                                                            v.      Deaf Civil Rights (including Deaf President Now campaign)

                                                          vi.      What are cochlear implants?

b.      Rhetorical Context Section

                                                              i.      Definitions and origin of key terms: audism, audiocentrism, oralism, lip-reading etc.

                                                            ii.      Idea of deafness that is not a disability

                                                          iii.      Deaf Identity

                                                          iv.      Goals of the AFA and AGBA

3.      Outlines

a.       Historical Context Outline

                                                              i.      The oppression of Deaf individuals is not a recent event, but rather an extensive institutional and individual prejudice that has taken place for centuries.

1.      Purpose: to look at the much older historical background of deaf oppression as a foundation to look back on as the main argument about Deaf Identity becomes more evident

2.      Sources: (Branson)

                                                            ii.      At the turn of the century, Alexander Graham Bell began to introduce a far more blatant form of oppression that was disguised as technological advancement.

1.      Purpose: to explore the personal history of Alexander Graham Bell within the scope of technology and deafness.

2.      Sources: (Greenwald) (Branson).

                                                          iii.      In order to describe the oppression felt by deaf individuals, “sociologist’s name” introduced the term audism.

1.      Purpose: to define the major term that has become very well-known and accepted to understand the more recent historical issues.

2.      Sources: (H-Dirksen)

                                                          iv.      As the push for Civil Rights for the African American Community began to show signs of progress, the deaf community began to fight the overt institutional oppression through their own protests.

1.      Purpose: to look at the other protests involving deaf identity and oppression in order to set up how significant of an event the invention of cochlear implants was.

2.      Sources: (Christiansen)

                                                            v.      The invention of cochlear implants presented a major setback in the realm of progress away from audism.

1.      Purpose: to look at what cochlear implants are, what they do/how they work, and what the results are especially for young children in order to set up the rhetorical analysis of deaf identity. This paragraph will serve as the transition between history and rhetoric.

2.      Sources: (Waltzman)

b.      Rhetorical Context Outline

                                                              i.      Cochlear implant technology brought the oppression of deaf individuals into current events and reinvigorated some theories and terminology that had been used to describe prior injustices.

1.      Purpose: to define the key terms surrounding the eventual protest including eugenics, audiocentric privilege, audism, aural rehabilitation and neuropolitics. (This will likely take more than one paragraph).

2.      Sources: (Mauldin “Precarious Plasticity”) (Hull) (H-Dirksen) (Eckert)

                                                            ii.      The concept of Deaf Identity and Deaf Pride were present before the Omni Hotel protests and helped to establish the significance of cochlear implants within the deaf community.

1.      Purpose: to look at the identities that existed prior to the protests that helped garner a united opposition against cochlear implants. This will contain an extensive analysis of what deafness actually is (defined both by the medical community, AGBA, and the general deaf population) (This will likely take more than one paragraph).

2.      Sources: (Branson) (Waltzman) (Mauldin)

                                                          iii.      The introduction of Cochlear implants represents direct opposition against what it means to be “Deaf.”

1.      Purpose: to set up the issue of cochlear implants within the deaf community, ethics of the procedure and the dilemma of choice for young deaf children.  This will be the main argument that I make for deaf identity being threatened by cochlear implants.

2.      Sources: (Mauldin)

FURTHER RESEARCH: what is the connection between deaf civil rights and the Civil Rights Movement? Common identities/borrowed poster “We Still Have a Dream.”