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Formulating (Dis)Ability: Discursive Construction of Cochlear Implant Satisfaction

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Discursive Psychology and Disability

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology ((PSDP))

Abstract

In medical discourses, cochlear implants have been positioned as assistive hearing devices that are designed to restore the hearing of deaf people. However, cochlear implants have also been criticized as being a product of phonocentrism that colonizes deaf bodies. Medically-oriented studies evaluating ‘personal attitudes’ toward cochlear implants have frequently reported that users are satisfied with their cochlear implants. Taking a Critical Discursive Psychology approach, this chapter instead demonstrates how preference for the cochlear implants should be understood as a construct that is normalized in everyday talk. By attending to the analytic tools of interpretative repertoires and imaginary positions, this chapter illustrates how the discursive differentiation between hearing aids and cochlear implants contributes to the formulations of hearing aid users as more disabled and cochlear implant users as more abled.

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Acknowledgements

Data collected for this study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, ROC (Taiwan) [103-2815-C-002-039-H] (2014–2015). I would like to thank Tsung-Yi Michelle Huang, Lauren Hall-Lew, Claire Cowie, and Yujing Su for their support in this project. I especially appreciate Jessica Lester’s support in the development of this chapter and for including this chapter in this volume.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

    Tsung-Lun Alan Wan

  2. National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tsung-Lun Alan Wan

Authors
  1. Tsung-Lun Alan Wan
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Correspondence to Tsung-Lun Alan Wan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Jessica Nina Lester

Appendix: Interview Protocol

Appendix: Interview Protocol

  1. 1.

    You are classmates in Taiwan Sign Language (TSL) class. Why do you want to learn TSL? When do you use TSL or when do you expect yourself to use TSL?

  2. 2.

    What is your opinion about hearing people mixing signed language in their dance?

  3. 3.

    Xiao-kun mentioned she was mistaken for a foreigner because of her accent. Does any of you have a similar experience?

  4. 4.

    When you talk in public spheres, are you afraid that people might give you a sidelong glance? Or you just talk naturally?

  5. 5.

    If people you don’t know talk to you, how do you usually react?

  6. 6.

    Do you have any experience of learning a foreign language? Why do you learn it?

  7. 7.

    Have you ever managed to “correct your pronunciation”?

  8. 8.

    Have you ever been treated in an unfriendly way because of issues related to oral communication?

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Wan, TL. (2021). Formulating (Dis)Ability: Discursive Construction of Cochlear Implant Satisfaction. In: Lester, J.N. (eds) Discursive Psychology and Disability. Palgrave Studies in Discursive Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71760-5_7

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