How technology has changed what it's like to be deaf | Rebecca Knill

TED Health

TED

Health & Fitness, Fitness, Shoshana Ungerleider, Medicine, How To Be Healthier, Ted Shoshana, Ted Talks Health

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Complete silence is very addictive," says Rebecca Knill, a writer who has cochlear implants that enable her to hear. In this funny, insightful talk, she explores the evolution of assistive listening technology, the outdated way people still respond to deafness and how we can shift our cultural understanding of ability to build a more inclusive world. "Technology has come so far," Knill says. "Our mindset just needs to catch up." After the talk hear from former TED speaker and palliative care physician Dr. BJ Miller in conversation with our host Shoshana on how his own disability has informed the way he cares for patients.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:08.7	This is Ted Hell.
0:09.7	I'm Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter.
0:11.7	Today, an exciting vision of how technology can make us more human.
0:16.6	Writer Rebecca Nill talks about the ways people respond to her deafness, outdated, stereotyped,
0:23.4	and just plain incorrect.
0:25.6	And she shows how cochlear implants have given her a kind of agency over her hearing loss.
0:31.9	And after, I'll talk to my friend, Dr. BJ Miller, a former Ted Speaker and palliative
0:37.4	care physician whose own physical disability has helped him to think in new ways about
0:42.4	how he interacts with patients.
0:51.4	My name is Rebecca, and I'm a cyborg.
0:58.0	Specifically I have 32 computer chips inside my head which rebuild my sense of hearing.
1:04.0	This is called a cochlear implant.
1:07.2	You remember the Borg from Star Trek, those aliens who conquered and absorbed everything
1:13.5	inside?
1:14.5	Well, that's me.
1:18.2	The good news is I come for your technology and not for your human life forms.
1:24.9	Actually, I've never seen an episode of Star Trek.
1:30.0	But there's a reason for that.
1:32.1	Television was in close caption when I was a kid.
1:35.4	I grew up profoundly deaf.
1:37.4	I went to regular schools and I had to lip read.
	...

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