Timothy, Organizer of the NYC ASL Meetup on NPR's Talk of the Nation

NPR's Talk of the Nation explores deaf culture in America and "The Evolving Debate over Cochlear Implants".

Neal Conan takes call from Timothy, who's deaf, and who also organizes the NYC ASL Meetup

CONAN: ... Let's get a caller on the line. And this is Tim, and Timothy is calling from New York City. Hello?

(Soundbite of typing)

CONAN: Oh, I think we're hearing an interpretation. This must be a deaf caller. Give it a moment. Hello, Timothy, are you there?

(Soundbite of typing)

CONAN: It's a TTY. It's a devise than an interpreter uses to communicate back and forth and...

TIMOTHY (Caller): (Through Interpreter) This is Timothy, and I am deaf. I've been deaf for about five years as a result of illness and scar tissue. And I'm calling on a VCO, voice carryover devise. And what I wanted to say is I had decided personally not for cochlear implant and surgery because of discussions I had with my doctors regarding previous head injuries and meningitis associated with the wire up through the cochlear to the brain, not going in the brain. So I have decided for that reason it's not good for me, medically.

But also, too, I'm not in the deaf community. I'm in the hearing community. And it's very difficult being in the hearing community being deaf because people don't want to talk on the telephone with relay and people don't want to learn sign language and things like that.

I did start a sign language group in New York just to try mainstream American Sign Language, and we have about 400 members in New York City. And that group, we meet monthly with about 30 of those people. And that's on meetup.com, New York City ASL.

But we have discussions around cochlear implant, and some people are very happy with cochlear implants. But it is a major surgery...

Read and hear the entire segment of Talk of the Nation by clicking here and here.