I'm thankful that I don't have to make this adjustment. Even though I can only use one hearing aid now, and even though my hearing loss borders on the profound in the ear that I do use my aid, I can unhesitatingly attest to the vast difference between being functionally hard of hearing and being functionally deaf. For my entire career as an Audiologist, I have stressed the crucial necessity of exploiting the full residual hearing of all people with hearing losses. My experiences in the past few months has added additional force to this recommendation. While there are adaptations that can be made, and have successfully been made by many late deafened people, in my opinion there's no real substitute for hearing - for the sounds of the world.
Times are different now.
We didn't have TTY's, captioned TV, or visual alerting systems. We have them now, plus the cochlea implant. Not only would I make this decision personally, but I would counsel any late deafened person to seriously consider the same option. I have the greatest admiration for congenitally deaf people who lead fruitful and fulfilling lives in the absence of hearing, but for those who have experienced and valued the sense of hearing, its loss can be devastating. An earlier version this article appeared in Life After Deafness, December l996.