Do I look a little nervous? Perhaps! Not every day you have to stand up in front of 400 people to talk for 3 minutes.
Can you imagine my face when they told me I had won? I was in shock.
It was the Australian Human Rights Community Award for an Individual.
It’s a big thing for me, because when you do the sort of stuff I am doing, it’s very lonely work – you think no one notices it. You do it, not for recognition, just for trying to change things for the better.
Plus, I’ve barely won ANYTHING in my life. So this is mega epic for me.
You can actually hear the acceptance speech at the awards ceremony which was held at the Sheraton on Park in Sydney on 10 December 2009.
For all my deaf friends, I have asked them to please put up a transcript for hearing impaired people! And lo and behold, mine is the ONLY one that comes with a transcript. HAHA.
Click on the link below to hear the audio of Human Rights awards speech:
January 22, 2010 at 5:23 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by DeafRead, Deaf Village. Deaf Village said: I won a Human Rights award: ok, so this news might be a bit old, but some people still don’t know. In December las… http://bit.ly/627Jha [...]
February 9, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Congratulations Kate
February 19, 2010 at 8:11 pm
Kate, well done on everything. Now pay attention. DONT QUIT THIS BLOG. EVER.
PLEASE.
Okay, you might feel you’ve peaked or reached your zenith in 6 months, but you will always have something to say. You might find new challenges, you might overcome new frustrations. Please keep this blog going because it will give all of us a slice of life about LIVING with a CI. How do people perceive you? Have perceptions changed? How has your life improved etc. There is so much to write about and your journey has just begun, so Please do not stop this blog ok.
May 15, 2010 at 8:33 am
“A cochlear implant is not a cure for deafness. It is just like a hearing aid, except it is implanted in your head.”
I disagree – a hearing aid amplifies sound, similar to how a megaphone amplifies sound. When sound is amplified it can become distorted and unclear. A cochlear implant directly stimulates the hearing nerve. It does not amplify sound at all. Therefore, they are completely different. Furthermore, cochlear implant users are generally able to hear many more frequencies that hearing air users. That is once again due to the direct nerve stimulation, rather then sound amplification.
“It appears that people who are deaf since birth, and get the implant after 5 years old seem to find it harder to adjust – maybe because of crucial years of language development have passed? Not sure.”
The brain has to learn how to listen/speak. The longer a deaf child waits before he/she is implanted, the harder it is for that child to learn how to listen/speak. Audio verbal therapy is a crucial step to listening/speech development when implanted. There is only so much time you have until the brain just can’t learn something so foreign.
For example, if an adult goes completely deaf at the age of 20, and does nothing about it for 5-10 years, then all of a sudden one day decides to be implanted. When that now 25-30 year old is implanted, his/her brain will have already forgotten what sounds, sound like. It won’t make sense anymore to that person, and it’s a very difficult learning experience to learn to listen in that circumstance.
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My own personal experience is this: My son was implanted with bi-lateral cochlear implants at 9-months old. Some may say that is too young, others will agree that it’s a perfect age. He is now 2.5 years old and talks/hears like his peers, if not better then some. You would have no idea that my child is completely deaf if you couldn’t see his hearing devices on him.
CI’s aren’t a cure, but they are the closest thing to one. As you can tell, i’m a huge supporter of cochlear implants, and i like to inform as many people as i can about them.
I don’t think you should give up on blogging. Continue to write, we will continue to read.
March 10, 2011 at 3:40 pm
hey Kate this is awesome, congratulations
))