Histories of cochlear implantation

The cochlear implant, an electronic device by means of which some totally deaf people can be provided with a form of hearing, has been increasingly used since the early 1980s. The mass media have typically presented it as an example of the remarkable success of modern technological medicine. In France and the Netherlands, the countries on which this paper focuses, as in many others, deaf communities have rejected the technology. They have protested at its use with deaf children in particular. Rather than locating it in a history of medical progress, they have located it within a history of their own oppression. Each historical rendering is used to try to influence policy. The contest, however, is an unequal one.