Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Negative comments from the deaf community about "Cold Case" episode

Titled "Audism runs amok in Hollywood," the blogger for The Deaf Edge discusses some of the problems with the representation of cochlear implants in the show, and a good number of comments to the post also critique what they felt were the show's negative images of the deaf community.

And Mishka Zena's blog gave the "Cold Case" episode a "thumb down" and had 66 responses to the review that felt the show was disappointing and worthy of complaining to CBS about. To complain, you can post a message here.

I will definitely defer to the deaf community about the problems with the show. According to some of the comments on Mishka Zena's blog, CBS did not have a consultant for the show about deaf issues or the cochlear implant. If that's true, it was a huge oversight by CBS to think it could delve into complex issues without guidance from the deaf community.

And the cochlear implant storyline was definitely sensationalized. One thing CBS didn't realize is that cochlear implants are much less controversial, even in the deaf community, than they used to be. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) wrote a detailed position paper on cochlear implants in 2000, which did not reject the technology but supported it because NAD says it "recognizes all technological advancements with the potential to foster, enhance, and improve the quality of life of all deaf and hard of hearing persons."