Not The Hearing Or Dead World Chapter Summary

Navigating Deafness in a Hearing World by Rachel Kolb Rachel Kolb was born profoundly deaf to hearing parents who were committed to being able to effectively communicate with her. Rachel received 18 years of speech therapy and is also able to communicate in sign language; she attributes her communicative success to many of the people who did not believe in her as a child. Rachel’s situation was quite rare, as she pointed out in her discussion that 90% of hearing parents with deaf children do not learn ways to effectively communicate with their children. She points out that children who are deaf face serious deficits in their academic success, social skills and independence but that these deficiencies can be changed if we change the way we think about deafness. She emphasizes the importance of family support and self-belief as the foundation of a therapy plan, and that we must teach people to focus on individual’s abilities rather than their disabilities.

Not the Hearing or Dead World by Heather Artinian Heather Artinian was born profoundly deaf and describes being stuck in between the deaf and hearing worlds throughout her life. At the age of 10 years Heather decided to get a

He wears a device that turns color into certain frequencies instead of seeing the world in shades of gray. He believes that his ability to “hear” color can lead to the development of technologies to extend a variety of senses. He discusses a technology currently being worked on to assist people who are deaf or hard of hearing. This device vibrates to detect movement and the direction of movement and can also detect how fast something is moving. His initiative to extend our senses via technology will help many populations who may be limited because of the absence of a sense or elderly people who’s senses may deteriorate as a result of the natural aging