The ways in which society has tried to cure deafness over the years, and that deaf people are still here.

Cochlear implants are not the first "cure" for deafness, there have been dozens before that. So-called doctors used to pour freezing or boiling water into the ears of deaf children, shove hot pokers into their ears, make all kinds of concoctions to be left in the ears for a period of time...really barbaric stuff. It was all commonplace until recently. Of course it didn't have a scientific basis, and it didn't work either. Deaf people are still here.

Now, obviously CIs are more effective than that. Hearing aids are too. But they're not killing the deaf population. They might be shrinking it somewhat, but so many people consider ASL and deafness a vital part of their identity, and create and maintain its vital culture, so much so that I can't see deaf people disappearing anytime soon.

Deaf people are resilient. There were decades upon decades of children getting punished for signing in class, forced to endure tedious auditory and oral training that was unsuccessful, and yet throughout this, ASL and deaf culture survived. Children signed in their dormitories, and the children with Deaf parents passed on the norms of Deaf culture to the children whose parents were hearing. You can't keep ASL down - they tried and failed!

Deaf people have been around since the earliest days of humanity, and will be for a long time to come. History has taught me this. :)