BEING DEAF: CASE STUDY OF A WOMAN, OVERCOMING DISABILITY TO ROAR WITH SUCCESS

This paper documents the success of a young woman with congenital severe to profound hearing loss. Her highly
focused and hardworking parents along with the correct choices about intervention at the right time made
Apurva Joshi’s (AJ) progress unstoppable. Currently working as an audiologist and speech language
pathologist, she and her parents have become a role models for many families of children with deafness. This paper has tried to analyze the contributing factors for AJ’s success. Few of the learning points for the better outcomes from this case study are early identification and intervention of hearing loss, hard work and
perseverance of the family, parent’s role and correct choices made at the right time, stimulation in early years only with one language, consistent use of hearing device and most importantly faith and conviction to raise the
CWHI like any other typical child, thus giving him /her opportunity to live productively with dignity in a
mainstream society.