Deafblind and deaf people say no to cochlear implants choosing ‘different way of seeing the world’

Jessica Cosgrove was only three years old when she had surgery to insert a cochlear implant hearing device.

The Australian Sign Language (Auslan) lecturer still remembers the shock of what happened when it was turned on a year later.

“I remember feeling confused and looking at the white soundproofing walls when the noise started,” she said.

“I was so startled that I screamed to my mum, ‘I’m hurt! My ear hurts!’ My mum didn’t understand. She just kept saying, ‘No, it’s all good!’ But I felt really uncomfortable.”

Now 37 years old, the Perth mother of one lives with a form of deafblindness known as Usher syndrome and does not regret her decision to stop using her cochlear implant a few years after it was installed.

“Deafness is not a tragedy,” she said.

“It’s simply a different way of experiencing the world.”