Sorry, Kid. You're Doing Too Well. No Second Implant for You.
Even at a time that bilateral implants are gaining popularity for both children and adults, some insurance companies do deny second implants. Deaf people with bilateral implants call it having "surround sound," meaning they can hear out of both ears and both sides of their heads. Another reason parents like having bilaterals for their children is so they have a backup "ear" if a problem develops with one implant.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Long ago I was denied an interpreter at school on the grounds that I did well enough academically without one. Are insurance companies going to examine the report cards of young deaf implantees who want a second implant and, if their grades are high, reject the request for a second implant? There is a reason parents buy their deaf or hard of hearing children two hearing aids; they do it to maximize their child's auditory potential and access to information, not so they can ensure that their child is at the top of the honor roll.
Comments
This kind of stuff drives me nuts. I had the same problem with the school saying that I was doing fine in school, so they wanted to take the interpreter out. Ugh!!
Rachel had to fight for a CART reporter for an art history class. Her college special ed department initially denied it because she’d gotten an A in her previous art history class. However, the professors were different, and, where the first had used Powerpoint with notes on the screen, the second was using old fashioned slides. Plus the first gave the students his notes. Rachel felt that she could not grasp everything in a straight 2 1/2 hour lecture with the second professor. Fortunately, after we went above the first person’s head, the school gave her CART.
I lived the frustration of insurance denial. It is so upsetting. it took a year to get my insurance to approve the implants, thanks to Let Them Hear Foundation.
My step dad’s insurance paid for most of my first implant, even though I will not consider getting a 2nd one, the insurance refused to cover implants permanently starting in 2007. I got mine in 2003.
Requesting for interpreters are not easy in college sometimes, it depends on the school. You have to be aggressive sometimes. I’m not too big on CART anyways, too much to handle, it’s like a text book in class for me. Why read more than you already have to?