More children gain hearing as gene therapy for profound deafness advances | Ars Technica
More children gain hearing as gene therapy for profound deafness advances | Ars Technica
The therapy treats a rare type of deafness, but experts hope it's a "jumping point."
There are few things more heartwarming than videos of children with deafness gaining the ability to hear, showing them happily turning their heads at the sound of their parents' voices and joyfully bobbing to newly discovered music. Thanks to recent advances in gene therapy, more kids are getting those sweet and triumphant moments—with no hearing aids or cochlear implants needed.
What I have always found interesting is that deaf parents with deaf children sometimes don't want to do anything about their child's hearing even if it is possible to fix it. There is an actual culture of deaf people (at least in the U.S.) with their own traditions, and, of course, their own language. I could see it being a hard decision as a deaf parent.
I wrote a paper on the whole reddit 3rd party app fiasco and because of the accessibility issues being raised I spent some time reading through r/blind and r/deaf. I didn't find it in the blind community but the deaf community seemed to have very strong opinions about medical interventions to restore hearing, and a lot were vehemently against it in all cases.
I think technology like this will be a contentious issue for them.
I mean, I assume that when someone's an adult, they can be re-deafened if they want if their parents restored their hearing (at least in medical terms. I don't know if it's legal for someone to have a doctor make them deaf).
Makes sense since historically, disabled people are treated as outsiders.
It would be really nice if ASL was taught in elementary schools.
I remember learning the ASL alphabet in elementary school, but that was it. If nothing else, it should be a high school language elective.
Edit: Amazingly, Duolinguo doesn't offer ASL as an option. I would pay for it.
Holy shit this is incredible. Hopefully it gets approval and is available to as many people as possible soon.
Ohhh they aren't going to like that. Unfortunately not /s.
Edit: probably unfair to peg them all but man what a hangup that community has.
How profound are we talking?
Pablo Neruda profound, Taylor Swift profound or John Mayer profound?