Having a disability now days in itself is a challenge. Today a person has more things available to them to help cope with the disability. Having a disability a disability fifty years or twenty years was an even bigger challenge. Being deaf in those days had its ups and downs. .
Children in the 1950s, who attended schools and programs for the deaf, had to wear bulky body-pack hearing aids. Children who had to wear these huge hearing aids had to deal with other hearing children teasing them. Right up in till the 1950s, people believed that deafness to be so terrible it had to be cured in any way imaginable, even if the cure risked bodily harm. One example was to stick a twig in the ear and keep it there all day and night until the deafness was cured. .
With the passing of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act things became a little easier for those with disabilities such as deafness. Section 504 strongly emphasized accessibility of buildings and programs for persons with disabilities. So as you can see this made life some what easier for deaf people as well as others with disabilities. Also the passing of public law 94-142, which was designed to assure that all handicapped children have available to them the following; special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs.
As the laws were passed and technological advances had been made, life in the 1980s became a bit better for deaf people. In 1985 the cochlear implants were invented. This small mechanical device was a prosthesis of sorts for the inner ear. This device made it possible for those with hearing disabilities to hear. Now children didn't have to deal with those huge hearing aids, now they were barely visible. Also during the early 1980s closed captioning made its first appearance on TV. Closed Captioning made it possible for deaf people to watch and enjoy television.
