Ahem..

Hundreds of miles east, at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., Rory Osbrink, 22, of Tustin, Calif., prepares for class. A senior majoring in philosophy and deaf studies at the nation's premier liberal arts college for the deaf, Osbrink has a cochlear implant, too, but he hasn't turned it on in five years. His communication skills weren't improving, he says, and he stopped using the implant. Now he relies primarily on American Sign Language (ASL).

Osbrink got his implant when he was 4. "My parents felt that the more options one has, the more successful one would become," he says. Now, ASL is his "main mode of communication," he says, but "English is another means, especially in my hearing family. . . . No one except for my eldest brother knows any sign language."



I'm glad he is very lucky otherwise his life would be different..