«Мне нравится, когда меня считают киборгом»: мотивация кохлеарной имплантации глухих людей во взрослом возрасте

Журнал социологии и социальной антропологии. 2022. Т. 25. № 3. С. 129–149.

Бабкина А. С., Bolshakov N.

Cochlear implantation (CI) is a relatively new phenomenon for Russia. It has had a significant impact on both the lives of individuals with hearing disabilities and the entire community of the deaf and hard of hearing people. The first CI operations in Russia were performed in the early 1990s, and already in the first decade of the 21st century, implantation took root in medical practice. In recent years, in the world and in Russia, there has been a tendency to implantation of adults with long-term experience of deafness. These people are usually classified by specialists in the category of unpromising patients, and the operation itself is considered risky. In the presented article, based on the results of a qualitative study, which included interviews with CI users, as well as with experts, the main motives determining the decision to perform implantation of adult deaf people are considered. As it was found, the decision on CI is motivated not only by medical indications, but also by the social motives of the individual. These include communicative, professional and individual-personal. In addition, a fundamental role in this process is played by a person’s rejection of the culture of the deaf, lack of full- fledged involvement in the life of the deaf community, self-determination and perception of one’s own deafness. According to CI users, the operation does not make it possible to turn a person into a “hearer,” and the traditional binary opposition of deaf / hearer identities is limited, resulting in hybrid identities. At the moment, the Institute of CI for adults has not yet been formed in Russia. This significantly complicates the process of integrating the CI user into the hearing society and requires a revision of the work with this category of people with hearing impairments.

Keywords: идентичность, identity, социология инвалидности, hearing impairment, Deafness, Глухота, нарушения слуха, кохлеарная имплантация, Cochlear implantation, sociology of disability

Publication based on the results of: The role of social diversity in institutional contexts: the inclusive society’s potential and challenges (2022)