I understand this perspective, but the analogy seems rather inapt. I can imagine societal changes that ameliorate the relative stigmatism of dark skin. I have difficulty imagining changes that would allow deaf people to enjoy music, for example. I can imagine technological changes that would allow deaf people the benefit of communicating with a much broader portion of the population without restoring their hearing, but am uncertain how resistant the deaf would be to that for cultural reasons
I think a better analogy for the deaf parents here is to people in the developed world who argue for leaving uncontacted tribes isolated. They think the tribespeople would be losing something by being exposed to the modern world around them, just as the deaf parents think something of their culture would be lost by easy access to the hearing world. I’m not particularly sympathetic in either case.
I understand this perspective, but the analogy seems rather inapt. I can imagine societal changes that ameliorate the relative stigmatism of dark skin. I have difficulty imagining changes that would allow deaf people to enjoy music, for example. I can imagine technological changes that would allow deaf people the benefit of communicating with a much broader portion of the population without restoring their hearing, but am uncertain how resistant the deaf would be to that for cultural reasons
I think a better analogy for the deaf parents here is to people in the developed world who argue for leaving uncontacted tribes isolated. They think the tribespeople would be losing something by being exposed to the modern world around them, just as the deaf parents think something of their culture would be lost by easy access to the hearing world. I’m not particularly sympathetic in either case.