The Cochlear Implant International Community of Action – CIICA carried out a global survey of adults with CI about the services they receive and what they would like – we reported on the whole group of over 1000 respondents in CI SERVICES MATTER, and now report on the experiences of a global group of 105 young adults who received cochlear implants as children and responded as adults. We now have the first group of young adults with CI – and they have for some time been meeting up online in CIICA CONVERSATIONS, led by Qais Khan, with their great summaries available at Summaries of our CONVERSATIONS – CIICA (ciicanet.org).
A global Advisory Group has been established with the purpose of recognising this new stakeholder group They tell us all:
„We are the first deaf young people with CI who are stepping into the hearing world… everyone here, united across the globe.”
On International CI Day, CIICA published the report YOUNG ADULTS WITH CI MATTER, using evidence from three sources:
- data for this group (105 respondents implanted under the age of 18 from 25 countries) from the Global Adult Survey;
- summaries of seven global CIICA Conversations with Young Adults with CI (49 young adults from 16 countries);
- a survey of the Global Advisory Group of Young Adults with CI.
We are pleased to share this unique comprehensive report from this pioneering group.
- Download the Full Report – Young Adults with CI Matter Full Report
- Download the Briefing here – Young Adults with CI Matter Briefing
These young adults are the first to grow up who are deaf, hearing with their implants. They are highly satisfied with their CIs (super satisfied!) but concerned about ongoing support and costs. When you are implanted at a young age, there is a long lifetime of funded CI services needed. As one young person implanted in Spain at the age of three, said: “Many people get their cochlears later in life when they may have 20 years to live or less but not me, I may have mine for 80 or more years. I’ve already had them 19 years so I’m facing issues the older generation knows nothing about.”
With their satisfaction comes a reliance on their technology: “I am so used to it I can’t do anything without my CI.”
These young people will launch their Agenda for Change at CIICA’s global conference, CI ADVOCACY IN ACTION, in Brussels in May as an example of advocacy in this new era.
Their proposal: The development of a new stakeholder group of young people to promote the benefits CI has brought, and the changes which could ensure lifelong hearing from CI; and full participation in society through their Agenda for Change. “I wish to ensure CI users voices are strengthened and we can move away from narrow understandings of deafness, and encourage understanding of the particular experiences that cochlear implant users have as deaf individuals participating and being active in the hearing world.”
See their great video at www.ciicanet.org.
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