Not a chance. Deaf people face all sorts of real world challenges and discrimination, but they often don’t cure their deafness (say, with cochlear implants) because they feel a sense of comraderie. Black people would face overwhelming social scorn if they chose to become white. Black people who are considered even slightly
I’m glad you’re mentioning it, I didn’t as I thought it was far too clear the opposite way.
So, in spite of very high cost (estimated $45k-$105k) of cochlear implants, very low quality of sound (described by some as human language sounding like “a croaking dalek with laryngitis”), requirement of surgery with possibility of complications, unpredictability of results, very short battery life (1-3 days), requirement of bulky external equipment (this problem is getting gradually solved) etc., popularity of cochlear implants exploded from 49k users worldwide in 2002 to 150k users in 2008.
I’d be willing to bet any money in prediction markets at imminent death of the “deaf culture” in a few generations (or for practical reasons some proxy like popularity of cochlear implants, percentage of deaf children in developing country learning sign languages etc.)
Some people from the “deaf culture” are protesting because they built their identity on this back when it was not treatable (so “not an illness”). Now as it’s treatable it’s considered an illness by the society, most importantly by parents of deaf children, and people who recently lost hearing. That’s exactly the shift I predicted.
I’m glad you’re mentioning it, I didn’t as I thought it was far too clear the opposite way.
So, in spite of very high cost (estimated $45k-$105k) of cochlear implants, very low quality of sound (described by some as human language sounding like “a croaking dalek with laryngitis”), requirement of surgery with possibility of complications, unpredictability of results, very short battery life (1-3 days), requirement of bulky external equipment (this problem is getting gradually solved) etc., popularity of cochlear implants exploded from 49k users worldwide in 2002 to 150k users in 2008.
I’d be willing to bet any money in prediction markets at imminent death of the “deaf culture” in a few generations (or for practical reasons some proxy like popularity of cochlear implants, percentage of deaf children in developing country learning sign languages etc.)
Some people from the “deaf culture” are protesting because they built their identity on this back when it was not treatable (so “not an illness”). Now as it’s treatable it’s considered an illness by the society, most importantly by parents of deaf children, and people who recently lost hearing. That’s exactly the shift I predicted.