Michael Chorost's Gallaudet Visit Fosters Dialogue on Broader Deaf Community

Editor: During and after the student protests at Gallaudet last year, the University consciously sharpened its focus on the Deaf world to the exclusion of the broader hearing loss community. In a signal that it may be reversing this disturbing trend, it recently invited Michael Chorost to campus for a series of discussions. Here's the press release.

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November 2007

Dr. Michael Chorost, a science writer and author of the memoir Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human, recently visited the Gallaudet University campus and took part in conversations with students, faculty, and staff. In his book, which was a 2006-07 and 2007-08 Common Reading selection for Honors students, Dr. Chorost recounts his experience of growing up hard of hearing and speaking, then becoming deaf and getting a cochlear implant as an adult.

During the October 17-19 visit, Chorost fostered open dialogue on numerous aspects of the wider deaf community, including oral deaf individuals like himself, in a number of ways. Focusing on meeting with students, Chorost had lunches, class visits, and drop-in "office hours" in the Honors Lounge. He also took time to meet and talk with many faculty and staff members on campus.

One key dialogue was a two-hour question and answer session with first semester Honors classes. Chorost told students he was happy with his choice to be an oral deaf person; he was satisfied with his implant and had worked to integrate himself into the hearing world. Certainly he has experienced limitations, as he describes at length in his book, but he is still pleased with his decision. Although he has studied ASL to some extent, Chorost said he does not use it because he has not reached fluency, and his life is so full that he feels he cannot devote himself to achieving it. On the other hand, Chorost said, if he had a deaf child, he would adopt a bilingual approach for the youngster, teaching him or her both American Sign Language and spoken English.

Above all, Chorost indicated that he seeks to connect with people in stimulating conversation, and the more languages a person knows, the more access he or she has to such interactions.

Honors Program director Shirley Shultz Myers, who helped to coordinate Chorost's visit, received positive feedback. "The students, faculty, and staff involved with his visit widely agreed that their conversations with him were enlightening," Myers said. "Meeting the author in person turned two-dimensional views to fuller, three dimensional understanding and respectful connections."