Cochlear implant (CI) is an artificial mechanism enabling us to receive sounds. But we the cochlear implant users need to take a proactive step to decipher the sounds into meaningful information to us. In non-silent situations, we need lipreading to a certain extent to facilitate or affirm the deciphering process. Some of us need more support from lipreading due to the differing levels of effectiveness of our CI. When technology has done its part, we need to play our part. Cochlear implant user Stephen Wright has learned to play to his part by being upfront about these needs and designed his life around them.
Stephen Works as An Audiologist
Stephen is currently working as an audiologist at InTouch Hearing, an audiology and hearing aids centre in Ontario, Canada. The 27-year-old Ontario native was first implanted in his left ear at age 4. He was explanted and re-implanted in the same ear when he was 13 because the previous implant was slowly failing. In 2015, he was implanted in his right ear as part of a study to see how children who got CI at different times performed.
He Was Re-Implanted
Stephen has experienced limitations due to his hearing limitation growing up. He could not play at the plastic slides in the playground, swim or play any water sports while wearing the CI speech processor. It was because CI is susceptible to static electricity when a child slides down a plastic slide and it was not waterproof. He also experienced a whole month of total silence in the month following his re-implantation when he was 13. He could not put on his CI while waiting for the surgical wounds to heal that month. He was effectively cut off from all his friends and family.
Navigating Social Life
Even today, he screens his invitations to events. “If I feel that I am not going to be able to participate due to lack of accessibility, I likely won’t go,” Stephen shared over email correspondence. For instance, he could not go to drive-in movies (spectators watch movies outdoors while inside their own cars) because there is no subtitle option. He could not join parties at night or take part in campfire conversations because he could not see well enough to lipread. Furthermore, he is usually too tired by the end of the day to listen well. At university, he had a service dog as part of the accessibility support. It helped make his hearing needs visible. His schoolmates would stop by and talk to him about the dog. That kind of first contact helped him to make new friends.
He Graduated Top of His Class
His hearing needs do not overshadow his talents and strengths. He excelled at school. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biology at Nipissing University (a liberal arts college in Ontario, Canada). He was elected the valedictorian of his graduating class, the class of 2015. His valedictorian speech at the convocation was greeted with a standing ovation. He later spent 18 months at missions school and trips in the UK, Albania and Uganda for missions school and work. He also completed his master’s degree in Audiology at Western University in 2018.
He Aspires to Be A CI Audiologist
Stephen aspires to be a cochlear implant audiologist. He believes that he could immediately and deeply empathise with his CI patients since he has been both early and later implanted. He understands the daily struggle that comes with being a CI recipient. He could distinguish what it means to be successful with one’s CI (his left ear) and what it looks like to be not so successful (his right ear).
Looking at the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community as a whole, Stephen believes more needs to be done in terms of bringing the members closer to each other. He believes that we need to advocate for our needs, and intentionally step out to make the connections with each other.
Stephen and friend showcases cochlear implant speech processors
You could find more cochlear implant user stories here.
CI Project collects cochlear implant user stories. I’d like to invite you to join the private Facebook group. You’ll receive an update of each new story (about once a month) and will get to interact with the characters of each story there. I’m also looking for more cochlear implant user stories. I’d appreciate it if you could nominate a cochlear implant user (including yourself) for me to write a story about!