Deaf Teens: Hearing World

FAINT MUSIC

MUSIC GETS LOUDER

Imagine what it's like to grow up in a silent world.

SILENCE

Where even the most everyday sounds simply aren't there.

SILENCE

MUSIC PLAYS

This is a film about five deaf teenagers taking their first steps into the hearing world.

This is the deaf community right here - this dot...

and then all of that is the hearing world.

Facing the challenges that growing up brings.

I'm going to be starting university in, like, a week,

and I'm going to be going there with no hearing.

Taking risky decisions that will shape their lives.

-INTERPRETER:

-If someone offered me a tablet to fix my hearing, I wouldn't take it.

And dealing with people who just don't get you.

'Do you know how patronising it is?!'

"Can you understand what I am saying to you?!"

How much can you hear with a hearing aid?

A lot more, surprisingly.

I mean, if I had my hearing aid I would have heard you breathing,

you know, that's how detailed it is.

I would have heard the birds singing or whatever they do.

And why do you not wear them?

I don't want to become too dependent on them.

I'm trying to learn to listen from my ears, even though

I can't, entirely, but, like... lip reading, I'm trying to be

more, you know...lean on that, I'm trying to lean on more of that.

Without a hearing aid, you can't hear me talk though, can you?

I like to think I can.

But if I cover my face, can you still hear what I'm saying?

A little bit.

A little bit. Cos I kind of know... I kind of, like,

expect what you're going to say - cos obviously you're covering your mouth.

"But the turtles are green and the oranges are orange."

No... No!

-MUSICAL DOOR CHIME RINGS

-What...?

-Can you hear that now?

-No.

-It's the front doorbell, I think.

-Is it?

MUSIC: "The City" by Patrick Wolf

Christianah's 17 and is halfway through her A-levels.

She's spending the last weekend of her summer holidays at Reading Music Festival.

Although she's severely deaf, she can still hear SOME sounds.

Christianah's come to the festival with a group of friends.

All of them are deaf, and they mostly communicate through sign language.

People see us signing, and I overhear them saying,

"Why are they here? They probably can't hear the music."

-And then we go up to them and talk to them and...

-No, no, no, no. I did it, like, four times today.

These people were looking at you signing, and then I said, "What?!"

And they were just like... And just kind of walked off. It was so funny!

LAUGHTER

MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH

At events like this, Christianah's deafness entitles her to

a disability pass.

"No way!"

-No, I'm used to that now, so...

-"Do you have a hearing aid?" "Yes..."

"Show me!"

"Oh, my God, it's hidden!"

"Oh, my God, you can't see it...

"But you can hear me though - you're not deaf."

And it's, like, "The point of the hearing aid is so I can hear!"

A lot of people have said that I don't sound deaf,

but I am, let me tell you, very, very deaf.

Meghan is 19, and is on her way to hospital for a life-changing operation.

If it's successful, it could radically improve her hearing.

I want to hear more, because I feel I've hit a brick wall in terms of my hearing

and maybe my speech, cos I know there's room for improvement.

Meghan has grown up in a deaf family.

Her mum as well as her sister and grandparents have all inherited their deafness.

But tomorrow, during a two-hour operation,

she'll be fitted with a cochlear implant -

an electronic device that will give her a whole new way of hearing.

Do you want to just stand up for me so I can have a look?

Cochlear implants don't work for all deaf people, and Meghan has

undergone a long assessment process to get to this stage.

OK, that's fine.

I just have to put a pen mark on your neck, that's just to

show that it's the right-hand side that we're doing, OK?

Remember I mentioned to you a while ago about the positioning

-of the...the cochlear magnet, and that I didn't...

-OK,

-you have a question about that, yes?

-Yeah.

And how they didn't want it to be, like, too high up.

And I'm quite happy about the position, just quite low down.

Meghan is not the first member of her family to have a cochlear implant.

-Her mum and her sister already have one.

-OK, I'll bear in mind what you've said.

But generally, with your hair, I mean, it really doesn't show.

The operation will permanently destroy any natural ability to hear.

But Meghan will have to wait a month before her implant can be

switched on - the very month she starts university,

and during this time she will be more deaf than ever before.

'I will be having my implant, and then I'll be starting university'

a week later, going into unknown territory with no hearing -

literally no hearing - and that'll be a big challenge.

'I am really nervous for Meghan.'

I've been through it. If it was me, it's fine, but because it's my little sister and

I feel really protective of her, I don't want anybody to cut her open.

'The risks are that it just may not work at all,

'and I've heard of quite a few people that's happened to.'

-INTERPRETER:

-I don't speak at all, because when I was growing up my parents were deaf,

and so they never spoke, and I thought sign language was all there was.

I signed growing up. Then at school they gave me speech therapy.

I didn't know why I needed it. They said I needed to learn to talk.

I said, "What's that? What does that mean?"

I said to my parents, "What IS talk?"

My parents said, "Ah - sign language is the way deaf people

"communicate, but hearing people SPEAK to communicate."

I hadn't realised.

Sara is 19.

She met Asher at a deaf school five years ago,

and they've been going out together ever since.

Because neither of them can hear or speak, they live in a totally silent world.

SILENCE

-INTERPRETER:

-I never hear anything. I'm fully deaf.

With hearing aids, all I could hear was beeps, and I thought, "What's that?"

So I took them off. I never use them. What's the point?

Same for me.

Like, if something's dropped, I'll feel the bang on the floor,

but I don't hear the noise. I don't hear anything.

Sara and Asher live with Sara's mum and brother in Nottingham.

Everyone in the family is profoundly deaf.

Sara's family communicate solely through sign language.

They consider themselves to be very much part of the deaf community,

and proud of their deaf culture.

-INTERPRETER:

-I'm very strongly in the deaf world. I'm passionate about it.

I can't imagine myself outside of that world. No, thanks.

I'm happy where I am, because my parents brought me up deaf.

Even though it might well help to improve their hearing,

no-one in Sara's family has ever considered being fitted with a cochlear implant.

INTERPRETER: I don't like to see children suffer, because it's not right.

I think cochlear implants look awful attached to the side of your head.

It's not right. I...I'd rather they looked normal.

-INTERPRETER:

-Personally, thank God I don't have a cochlear implant,

cos I wouldn't know where I belong - in the deaf world, or the hearing world?

I know I'm in the deaf world, that's it,

but with a cochlear I'd feel in between.

We find it offensive when people come in and say,

"Oh, we can change you into a hearing person."

So that's why cochlear implants are a really sensitive issue for us.

It's offensive to think you can fix it. You can't fix it.

If you're born deaf, you're deaf, that's it.

At home, Sara has no need for speech,

but in a week's time she's starting a three-year university course.

In the wider world, where few will understand her sign language,

how will she make herself heard?

So I put up a status last night - quite blunt about how I... how I said it,

and I said, "I'm getting my skull hacked into in about 13 hours. Lovely(!)"

The cochlear implant surgery is most successful

when it's performed on the ear with the best hearing,

which makes the operation all the more risky.

'One of my main fears is having the operation on my good ear,

'because if, say, it doesn't work

'and I'm left with no hearing in that ear - which has happened to

'one of my other friends - I'm not sure how I would cope.'

The surgeon creates a small space on the surface of Meghan's skull,

which is where the electronics will go.

From here, an electrode will carry signals down into the inner ear.

After the surgery, Meghan will have to wait four weeks

before the implant can be switched on, as the area must be given time to heal.

For a month, she'll have virtually no hearing,

and will have to rely on lip reading and sign language to communicate.

In four weeks' time, you're going to come back,

and we're going to switch the implant on, OK?

When you switch on it'll probably be quite strange - some beeps and buzzes -

and you still might feel that you're not picking up speech, but with time,

as you get used to it, it'll hopefully get better and better.

For some people it can be six months, a year

-before they really feel they're making progress.

-Yeah.

-OK?

Right.

Did the doctors come in and see you this morning?

Hmm?

I know, I've just realised you can't hear me properly.

-That's us.

-Oh, yeah. It's not too bad.

While Meghan comes from a deaf family,

90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents,

with little or no experience of deafness.

Jake and Adam are identical twins,

although one difference sets them apart.

Jake is profoundly deaf.

Go...!

And Adam can hear.

Good tackle. It was a good tackle.

INTERPRETER: Sometimes I wish I wasn't the only one,

that there was someone else in my family who was also deaf.

That way I could explain to them exactly how I feel about being deaf...

..and they'd understand what I meant.

But there isn't anyone.

My whole family can hear, and I'm the only one who's deaf.

-Very lucky.

-Was it? Not true.

I am really lucky to be hearing considering that Jake was deaf,

and it could have quite easily gone the other way,

Jake could've been fine, I could have been the one that had

been deaf, and my life and the people I know and the way - the way

that I'm going to grow up and live my life would have been so different.

If you ask nicely, Dad might give you a lift to the train station

cos he's on a late tomorrow.

The twins were born 12 weeks early,

and it was complications from their premature birth

that led to Jake's deafness.

At first his parents found it hard to come to terms with the diagnosis.

'We've come a long way from Jake being diagnosed.'

And the early, early times, that was - that was the hard bit,

and like we said, in sort of the first year or so.

It's like having something very special given to you

on Christmas morning and it doesn't work.

It was a really strange time. It didn't last for long.

And the good thing about having twins is we realised that there

was absolutely nothing wrong with Jake's brain.

Actually, his brain was exactly like Adam's.

And if I drove in the car when he was in the car-seat,

when he was quite small, and Adam used to ask me,

"What's that, Mummy?"

And it - say it was a cow in the field -

I used to stop the car and tell Jake,

because I knew Jake was the same age

and I knew he was looking out of the window, and I thought,

"I bet he's got the same thoughts as Adam, but he can't ask me that question yet."

-Hmm!

-Don't scratch your plate, please.

It's really loud and eehhh!

I know you can't hear it, but it really...

-THEY LAUGH

-It's bad for us!

Because the twins are so close,

no-one understands better than Adam the unfairness that Jake might face.

Because you're deaf that restricts the jobs you can have.

So, for example, you can't - like, you used to want to fly,

be a pilot, and now you can't.

Because you need to be able to hear what people are saying

about the flight and things, that's something you can't do.

Maybe you get a job at Tesco or something.

For example, and you earn 20,000 every year.

I might get a job as...

a boss of a hotel, I might earn...

..50 or 60,000 and you earn...

..20. So I earn a lot more money than you.

You think you should be able to fly a plane.

Don't you think that would be difficult?

Asher began driving lessons a year and a half ago.

He's currently preparing for his test.

His instructor is hearing

and Asher is only the second deaf pupil he's taught.

INTERPRETER: The instructor has two ways of telling me what to do.

While I'm driving he uses hand-mime, handshapes like, for example,

if I'm going round a roundabout,

he says two,

that means the second exit.

He also says left, right,

stop, go ahead.

And this means go faster.

But if he needs to explain something more complex,

he tells me to stop and he writes it down.

For deaf people obviously there's the issue where

they can't hear sirens,

they over-rev the engine

because they can't hear the engine revs.

You've also got big lorries and stuff that they can't hear coming up alongside them.

So we have to make sure that they check their mirrors a lot more

than somebody who can hear normally because, obviously, there's a lot of issues

that they won't hear coming up surprising them.

But it's pretty much the same as boy racers running around with loud music on,

they can't hear nothing neither.

Christianah lives with her family in Milton Keynes.

They are all hearing apart from her sister, who was also born deaf.

When they were younger,

they were both...they were both

embarrassed about being deaf because of their friends.

Because when they were younger their friends used to laugh at them.

I was really worried because I thought how are they going to survive after,

when they get older, in the big, wide world.

For the past seven years

Christianah has grown up in the safe haven of Mary Hare,

a boarding school exclusively for deaf children.

But now she has only one year left before heading out

into the hearing world and it's a crucial year.

She must get the A-level grades she needs

to have any chance of going to university.

Unfortunately, last year didn't go so well.

..was, erm...

Ahhh!

Oh, my God.

'I think every deaf person has to try harder, you know,

'to get where they want to be.

'I'm constantly thinking, "What if?" you know,

'because of my hearing.

'What if I can't get to that particular stage because of my hearing?'

Mary Hare is one of only 30 deaf schools in the country.

It has 230 pupils aged 5-19.

The school keeps classes very small to offer the students more support.

'Good morning, everybody.

'I hope you had a wonderful summer holiday.'

There are only months left for you at Mary Hare.

Every day, every hour, every minute is vital.

Use your time and your help well

and you can all have something special to celebrate next August.

Mary Hare has a unique approach as it places so much emphasis

on speech that sign language is actually banned from classes.

Aooow!

Loud!

For most of their lessons the students wear headphones,

which isolate the teacher's voice from any background noise.

OK, so, The Handmaids Tale -

they call the babies that are born with deformities "shredders",

and they dispose of them,

cos they're looking for this perfect baby

and they don't know how to handle those kind of disabilities.

And that's the kind of issue that the book explores.

What about...a thought about your disability?

-Because what did people used to believe about deaf people before technology?

-Deaf and dumb.

And that's an insult.

They thought they were possessed as well.

You'd be locked away, I'm afraid,

cos people had no understanding...

Because of the emphasis on speaking and hearing,

students are expected to wear their hearing aids as much as possible.

How many of you wear your hearing aids over the holidays?

How many of you walk out of Mary Hare and go,

whoosh, six weeks of not wearing them?

Any student found without their hearing aids during the school day

can find themselves in trouble.

Christianah!

-Yeah.

-No, no, no

No, come here. Who's your form tutor?

If you leave them at home in your room again, tomorrow,

you'll be last for lunch.

I'm going to have a little word with Miss Appleby...

-No. Wait, wait, wait.

-..and make sure she checks on you in the morning.

-You are 18. Grown up. Wear them.

-I will have - I will have it in the morning.

-I will! I promise, I promise, I promise.

-OK.

-I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

'I don't really like being viewed as deaf.'

"Oh, my God, she's deaf."

-I'm not, I just can't hear.

-That's the deaf girl.

-I can't...

Yeah! "That deaf girl, that small blonde one?"

Ohh! No. I have a name!

Have you noticed how hearing people have one, like, view of deaf people?

They always think that deaf people cannot hear at all

and cannot speak.

We are deaf and dumb.

Imagine just going to the shop and then you start,

"Oh, can I have a book, please?" and stuff. And then they're, like, "OK then."

And they see the hearing aid and they're, like, "Oh, you're deaf."

-"Oh, erm, you...want...a...book?"

-Do you know how patronising it is?

-SPEAKS SLOWLY:

-Can you understand what I am saying to you? OK?

Bus drivers are worst.

Cos, like, we have some, what do you call it?

-We have a Freedom Pass.

-A Freedom Pass.

We get on the bus and we show the driver, and the driver's just like, "You're not disabled."

They'll look at you as if you're a retard, as if you're supposed to look deaf.

What do you want me to do? Be in a wheelchair and have my head onto the side or something?

It's four days since Meghan's cochlear implant operation.

She has another three weeks before the implant can be switched on.

How is it being entirely deaf?

How is it being entirely deaf?

I don't know, it's quite strange really, and I feel a lot more deaf.

I'm not like... Normally, I can, like, hear sounds and stuff,

but since it's my left hearing aid it's really strange.

If I hear sounds, I can't define what it is,

and I can't tell where it's coming from, and it's quite annoying.

It's been weird here because she's not been playing music,

and normally it's on 24/7,

but because she's not enjoying it

with the hearing she's got in the other ear

it's been quite silent here.

As well as struggling with drastically reduced hearing,

Meghan faces another challenge.

She's about to move into halls for Freshers' Week at university.

Are you worried about university

and not being able to hear at the moment?

A little bit, yeah, because I'm worried that the first month,

when everybody's getting to know each other

and maybe going out to something,

the first month is maybe quite crucial.

It's actually quite scary because it's Freshers' Week

which is like a whole week of meeting new people.

I hope it's going to be a good week

that I'll remember for the rest of my life,

and it's not going to turn out completely horrific.

Meghan's friend, Laila, is also deaf, but has improved hearing

through a cochlear implant she's had for years.

She's going to help Meghan through her first few days at university.

Meghan's sister, Justine, started at university three years ago.

The transition to university, for me, was actually quite tough.

Having come from a deaf family where you know what everything...

what everybody is saying,

what...exactly what's going on, you're just overwhelmed.

And I was, more often than not, an observer.

It's hard to stop everybody and say, "I'm deaf,

"I have a cochlear implant, I need you to be aware."

You can't just do that.

Meghan will be studying veterinary nursing

at Edinburgh Napier University.

For the first year, she's moving into a flat in halls

with five people she has never met before.

It's not bad.

-Hiya.

-Hi.

-How are you?

-I'm Michaela.

-Pleased to meet you.

-What's your name?

-Meghan. My name's Meghan.

-Oh, hi.

-What room are you in?

-8.

-OK.

So I'll be in this room for the rest of the year.

I've met, I think, four people now in here.

-Really? I've not met anybody, you're the first one.

-OK.

So I'm just having a look around - really nice...really, really nice.

-I like the bed, it's very nice.

-It's big!

So just to let you know, I'm deaf.

-Sorry?

-I'm deaf. I'm a deaf student.

-Oh!

And I've just had a cochlear implant,

so I've just had an operation,

so I can't hear very much at the moment,

but I'll be getting switched on at the end of the month,

so just bear with me.

-OK. No, that's good to know.

-I can't hear very much,

but I'll try my best.

Laila said to me that deafness is like an invisible disability,

that people would never know that you're deaf unless you told them.

And obviously I'm from a deaf family,

went to a deaf boarding school, so it's, like, I was

in heaven for a few years,

and so now it's, like, this is the real world,

you've got to put yourself out there and make it known that you're deaf.

I love how in the fridges you've got, like, salad, eggs and stuff,

and my addition to the fridge is a bottle of Malibu.

To my, um...university experience, I don't know,

my first university experience.

MUSIC: "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers

They're really, really nice, and, um...

Do you ever feel isolated

by yourself in, like, a group or feel depressed

because of being, like, the only deaf person in a group

-or anything like that?

-No.

-You're happy?

-Yes.

So you get frustrated but not depressed?

HE INHALES DEEPLY

Why do you get frustrated?

You wish you knew what they were talking about.

More involved in conversation.

Exactly. People feel uncomfortable.

Yeah, because it's strange to them.

We experience it every day,

and all my life I've been talking to deaf people, so I'm used to it,

but other people that have never talked to a deaf person

in their life, it's scary for them.

Today is Sara's first day at university.

She's beginning a three-year sociology course

at Nottingham Trent.

INTERPRETER: Sara really wanted to go to university -

it was her aim to get a degree.

She wanted to secure her future and get a really good job,

and I'm really proud of her, cos, well, you know, she's deaf,

but she CAN do it, she CAN go to university,

and that's really amazing.

-INTERPRETER:

-People think that deaf people are thick

and can't go to university, but they can.

But I am worried about making friends

and university life in general,

because it's difficult to be included in a hearing community.

To get by at university,

Sara will need two support workers at every lecture -

an interpreter to translate the lecturer's words into sign language

and a note-taker.

But there's been a mix-up with today's note-taker,

she's only been booked for half the lecture.

-INTERPRETER:

-I'm a little bit nervous about the note-taker

and the interpreter being there.

It's a bit embarrassing for me turning up with two other people.

LECTURER: I'm going to go round and give everybody our handbook.

And it's a real pleasure to see you all...

-INTERPRETER:

-But I need both of them

because when I'm watching the interpreter sign,

I can't look away to make notes for myself.

That's what the note-taker's for.

And talk a little bit more detail...

Hearing people can listen AND take notes, but I can't.

But I'm worried it might be off-putting for other students

and they might not come and talk to me.

They might think, "Oooh, special needs, can't she manage on her own?"

Christianah comes home from school most weekends

to see her mum and sister.

Her dad isn't around as he went back to Nigeria when she was four,

about a year after her deafness was recognised.

I don't know what my dad thought about my deafness.

I was too young to know,

but I have been told by my mum that he weren't happy at first...

..and now he's OK about it.

He doesn't mention it, though, it's like I don't have it,

I don't have the disabilities.

Christianah's dad, he didn't like the idea of them wearing hearing aid

especially when we are with the family

or with his friends, so we always have to take them off.

He wanted them to speak, he didn't want them to do any signing,

so I wasn't encouraged to...to learn sign language, and I never did.

-16?

-Yeah.

-What are you putting it on me for?

Size 10, but it's size 8...

Although Christianah has some hearing friends,

she's never had a hearing boyfriend.

But there's always the topic of what would the hearing guy's family think

and how would they react to the fact that he's had a deaf girlfriend?

Because they may have never met a deaf person before,

so to have one as your son's girlfriend would be a bit of a...

you know, shock.

It will always be a case of, "Oh, but she's deaf.

"But she's deaf, you know, what if your child is deaf?"

Some families have a husband deaf and a wife deaf,

some families like that wish for a deaf child

so the whole family's deaf.

Do you think that's fair? Do you think that's right or not?

It's not very fair, is it, to be wishing for a disabled child?

The mum and dad might be happy,

but the child might have a terrible life,

get bullied or something like that,

or he might have a fine life, we don't know, but...

I'm fine.

Yeah, you're fine, but it would be easier to be hearing.

Meghan still has no hearing following her operation,

but today she has to attend her first lecture.

MURMUR OF CONVERSATION

DISTORTED LOW RUMBLING

Can you all hear me up at the back? ..OK.

MUFFLED DISTORTED RUMBLING

With no hearing, Meghan's only way of understanding other people

is to read their lips, which is much harder in the dark.

MUFFLED DISTORTED SPEECH

HUBBUB OF CONVERSATION

DISTORTED RUMBLING

The main thing a deaf person could be embarrassed about

is their speech maybe, I don't know,

but they could...they could feel like...like, even me,

if I was to go up to McDonald's,

I would go in McDonald's, which I don't any more,

but if I was to say, "Oh, can I have a cheeseburger?

And they say, "Sorry, what?" "A cheeseburger." "Sorry, what?"

That puts me down, I think, "Oh, am I not speaking clear enough?"

or, "Can you not understand me?" or, "Am I not saying the right thing?"

Christianah has now been back at school for five weeks

and her grades are starting to improve.

But she still doesn't wear her hearing aids all day.

HUBBUB OF CONVERSATION

CLATTER OF PLATES

Yes, please?

More fish.

SILENCE

SILENCE CONTINUES

Christianah is considering a degree in journalism.

I am concerned in how far I could go, cos I know anything I do

my deafness does interfere, no matter what.

I would like to think that I'd gone as high

as any other hearing person could go,

But I would hate to see my deafness

stopping it from going anywhere.

Hopefully, that's not the case,

you know, but we'll see.

We'll see.

Sara's now been at university for three weeks.

-INTERPRETER:

-University at the moment is kind of OK,

but I've started to wonder whether I should stay or quit.

But I feel under pressure because there are so few jobs around,

plus the fact that I'm deaf is going to make getting a job even harder.

So it feels like my only option is to stay at university.

If, by Christmas, I'm still not happy,

I'll have to think of doing something else.

Tonight, Asher is taking Sara out to talk things over.

CHATTER IN RESTAURANT

INTERPRETER: If there's no queue behind me

I feel much more relaxed ordering things.

But if there is a queue I feel a bit under pressure.

Hi there. What table?

OK. What can I get for you?

Because I'm deaf and I'm communicating with a hearing person,

it takes a little bit longer.

One funny thing when we were out for a meal together

is that we can't talk and eat at the same time.

Usually one person will start talking

and the other person will eat. Then, when they want to say something,

they have to stop eating and put their cutlery down

so that they can talk. We take it in turns to talk and eat,

and the trouble is, if you talk too much, your food goes cold.

A month has passed since Meghan's operation.

I'm going to get my implant switched on today.

It's been a long four weeks, but I've finally made it.

It should be quite interesting, exciting.

I'm a bit nervous as well.

It's going to be really weird hearing sounds through my magnet

right through here into my cochlea and not actually through my ear.

I've been told not to expect too much

from my first switch-on,

but I think I'm starting to expect a lot.

I remember the last time I was walking this way,

I was crapping myself. I had my overnight bag

and I was walking ahead, like I didn't want to speak to anybody

before my operation.

Now I'm like, "I'm going to get switched on!"

OK, so that's you switched on.

OK.

TAPPING

-Yeah, I hear that.

-Yeah? Good.

Yeah. And that's quite high pitched.

PEN CLICKING

Good, good.

-KNOCKING

-Good. OK.

-And can you hear my voice?

-Mm-hm.

-Good!

It's a little bit like robotic.

Right, that's fine though. That's great.

-RATTLING

-Can you hear that?

Because you won't have heard that kind of sound before,

-that'll sound a bit odd.

-Yeah.

OK. Good. Well done.

So your brain's trying to sort out all of these different sounds

at the moment and, you know, it'll take time to be able to pick out

different sounds and to recognise sounds.

So don't worry if you can't hear some sounds

that other people can hear. It just takes time.

BABY SCREAMING

Can you hear that? Now you know!

Now you know what it's like to hear a child screaming.

It's horrible. It's like really high,

I was looking at the ceiling,

I thought it was an alarm of some sort.

For a month, Meghan has been unable to listen to her music.

Now is her chance to find out if she can enjoy her favourite songs again.

How's it sounding? Is it good?

I can hear. I can hear the music.

Over the next few weeks, Meghan will get better

and better at hearing ordinary sounds through the implant.

I can't really hear that.

A little bit, but it's not, like, loud.

TOILET FLUSHING

It's quite loud.

It sounds quite loud.

I can, like, hear the beeping at the end.

HIGH-PITCHED BEEP

Yeah, I can hear that.

RUSTLING

I know what you couldn't hear before.

She's going to try and put on the car park alarm

and see if I can hear it. Before, it was too high for me to hear.

But I'm not sure if I can hear a high-pitched sound.

CAR ALARM RINGING

Is that it?

Yeah, I can hear that.

To help with her career choices, Christianah has found herself

work experience at a media production company.

She has travelled to London

to visit the offices of Remark,

a company staffed mainly by deaf people.

Over the course of the day, Christianah will attend

briefings, help prepare stories

and operate the autocue

for the recording of this week's news programme for the deaf.

Like, when you rub your hands together,

I never knew that made a sound. It's just really annoying.

I'm constantly gushing over every time somebody asks me

"Oh, you've had an implant." I'm like, "Yes, I've got it."

I'm showing them and just saying, "Oh, you should have one."

Telling everybody that they should have one.

And, er...

And I amaze myself with what I can hear and it's amazing

with what a little piece of machinery can help you hear.

Sara and Asher have come down to London for a radical new club night,

designed specifically for deaf people.

It's called Sencity, and it's the first of its kind in the UK.

Around a thousand deaf people have bought tickets for tonight's event.

-INTERPRETER:

-Sometimes there's a party and, you know, I can't make it

or I'll go and my friends can't make it.

but Sencity, everybody's going to be there.

Meghan is also getting ready to go to Sencity.

It's quite nice to go from,

like, university where I've got to really, really work hard

to follow what's being said

to a deaf environment and having to just, like, sign

and understand exactly everything that's going on.

But I have... Right now, I've got no preference

because I've made my first proper hearing friend

and I love him so much already and I love my deaf friends.

So it's good to have, like, a balance between the two of them,

like two different worlds to be involved in.

As Sencity is such a unique event,

deaf people have travelled from all over Europe

to experience what it has to offer.

Meghan has come with her best friend Connor.

Tonight is the first time that she's met Sara and Asher.

Sencity offers an assault on all the senses.

There's a vibrating dancefloor.

Aroma jockeys mixing scents to match the music.

And there are even taste sensations to be experienced.

-INTERPRETER:

-When you first go in, it's like the whole place is vibrating.

INTERPRETER: I can't hear the music, but I can feel the vibrations.

The best thing about tonight is meeting friends,

seeing lots of people, drinking and enjoying ourselves.

Seeing friends from all over the place.

-Yeah, I suppose so.

-Like a culture.

-Definitely. Definitely. Definitely.

-Yeah.

Subtitling by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail: [email protected]