I'm staying at coop near campus this week (officially, because the dorms aren't open yet, but my roommate got early return to help with rush, so really because I wanted to hang out with these folks). Some friends are letting me sleep on their floor. I will swear up and down that my laptop was muted when I went to sleep - but it made that big-ass Macintosh BONG when I booted it this morning while they were all still snoozing. Dammit. I feel like such a chowderhead.

For future reference, I found StartupSoundPrefPane; I haven't used it yet, but I'm installing it now.

You may remember that earlier this year I made a hobby out of hassling the Facilities department for not making new buildings accessible from day one. Well, my first step back on campus, I ran into one of my allies at the Disability Services Office, who told me that they (and their colleagues in the Accessible Technology office) have been twisting Facilities' arm about putting out a guide to campus accessibility. Apparently, I walked in at just the right moment, because someone brought up the idea that they should suggest that Facilities hire a student who actually uses a wheelchair to get around to do the pre-map survey, rather than just dump some random employee in a chair for the day. And since I was standing there ... I hope this pans out!

It's been two weeks since my CI was activated, and I keep meaning to blog about it, but so far I haven't gotten around to it. Translation: I'm a lazy slacker. For now, suffice it to say that it's going *extremely* well - better than I expected, even - because I have another topic I want to talk about.

Cued speech is a fairly controversial topic in some circles. It's often used as a tool for language acquisition, and while I have met people for whom it seems to have worked very well, I'm willing to accept (and even in some cases agree with) the statement that it is in some ways a throwback to the old-fashioned methods of oralism.

That said, there are adult cuers out there. Some of them are late or progressively deaf people who want a visual method of communication that is 'easier' (in quotes because that's a somewhat subjective statement) than ASL or PSE. Some grew up cueing, but still cue (and yes, among cuers who have both Cued English and ASL as shared languages, you will see cueing used socially, contrary to popular myth). And some people are just playing with another cool toy - I would put myself in that category.

So there is a population out there that is interested in cued speech for reasons that have nothing to do with language acquisition, literacy, or childhood development. It becomes tiring, then, when people post tirades about the Evils of Cued Speech in threads or blogs that are not about those topics, but are instead about the mechanics of CS - information that could be very useful to the population of cuers who freely choose to cue! Particularly frustrating is when a poster acknowledges that CS can be useful in some cases, and only has a problem when CS is used with children, but persists in flooding such a discussion.

In addition, we often see similar discussions where a given method or tool is deemed appropriate for adults but not children. For example, there seems to be a general agreement that SEE is less appropriate as a native language (or lifestyle language) for children when compared with ASL, even if it has its uses in ESL classes. But there's no pileup on those posters who grew up with SEE and say they still prefer it over ASL; after all, it's what they're used to. (A similar analogy might be made with adult vs. child use of cochlear implants - that discussion tends to fall somewhere in between the CS discussion and the SEE discussion in this regard.)

I guess the bottom line for me is: leaving any discussion of childhood education aside, there are people who voluntarily choose to do things that you might not, because it's the right choice for them. That right - to make the choices that work best for oneself - is important, perhaps even sacred, as long as it's not negatively impacting on others.

I just got news that made my day. Yes, all 57 remaining minutes of it (or is that expression retroactive?)

It comes in two parts, actually. First, a VRS company called SnapVRS has released a phone called the Ojo. The Ojo is unique among VRS-provided phones, as far as I can tell, in that it is entirely self contained and doesn't require a TV for display. It's also quite a bit more portable-looking - and dorm-friendly, heh.

The other nifty bit is that CSD is offering a service I haven't seen before, called English Based Sign + Lip-Reading Option. I have the feeling it's new, but I'm not certain. And while you could always, in theory, ask any VRS interpreter to sign PSE rather than ASL, I've heard stories of interpreters being unwilling to do oral interpreting.

I'd toyed with the idea of applying for a video phone before, but this might just push me over the edge.

As I approach my activation date - Wednesday - I'm getting really impatient. Will everything sound like croaking Daleks? Just beeps? Normal speech? (Okay, maybe not.)

A few days ago, I felt the implant for the first time. I'd been feeling around near the incision for a while - cleaning out the cruft, and itching my new scar (one for the collection, heh) - but I guess it was obscured by the swelling. It's subtle - just a little raised edge behind my ear, about at the level where my cartilage ends and the squishy part of the lobe begins, and it goes up on a diagonal to a point just a bit above my ear. I think, anyway - touch is a tricky sense. I should try feeling it while looking in a mirror. It basically feels like bone, but the flatness of it and the regularity of the edge are a dead giveaway.

I'm also getting curious as to the hearing aid on my other ear. I've been told that I should leave it in at least long enough to see if I like the balance, and that I can always take it out if it interferes, or if it makes me feel off-balance. I'm curious, though: will I wear it during the activation? Or therapy? It will be interesting to see if it's useful to have a familiar guide while I'm adapting, or if leaving it out will force me to rely more on the implant and speed the process. Questions for the audiologist and the therapist, I suppose.