Interview with Nanci Linke-Ellis Cochlear Implant Recipient and TRIPOD FILMS Associate.
AO/Beck: Hi Nanci, it's nice to meet you. Thanks for your willingness to share your story and your thoughts with us.
Linke-Ellis: Hi Dr. Beck. Thanks for inviting me.
AO/Beck: Probably the best thing to do is to just start at the beginning. Would you mind telling the readers a little about your history, as it relates to your hearing loss and your profession, and then we'll move on from there?
Linke-Ellis: Sure, that'll work. I was born with normal hearing. When I was about 4 years old I received high does of mycin antibiotics for a horrible infection. We knew there was a chance of losing some hearing, but it was a very small chance, and of course, the antibiotics were necessary to clear up the infection. Well, I was just a little kid, and I didn't know what everyone else was hearing, so I went all the way through 5th grade before a teacher discovered that I was almost deaf! I was ten years old and I couldn't hear anything. I was tested formally and it was determined that I had about a 75 dB (severe) hearing loss in both ears.
So, I started to wear hearing aids at that point. As you can imagine, that was a terrible thing for me at that time, being a ten year old girl and wearing those large hearing aids was embarrassing and certainly caused me hours and hours of distress. You have to realize that that was in the early 1960s, and back in those days, very few people under the age of 70 wore hearing aids! I wore hearing aids from that point until 1993.
AO/Beck: What can you tell me your thoughts regarding wearing aids in 2002 as a ten year old girl, versus wearing hearing aids in1962?
Linke-Ellis: The world is very different now. For example, when we were kids, and went to a movie, all we had was one chance to get the dialogue. There were no videos, no rentals, no DVDs, and there was no closed captioned text to read. Simply, I recall that if you missed the words of a film or a TV show, they were gone. There was no way to play it back or rewind it! Also, if you wore hearing aids back then, there was no direct connect, no FM, no audio input. In fact, very few homes even had remote controls for their TV at that time. You simply had your hearing aids at home, and that was about it. The other thing was that there were no cochlear implants. So if you were so deaf that you couldn't wear a hearing aid, or two hearing aids, you had no options. Another big issue back then, and maybe a little less today is the cosmetic issue. Hearing aids were UGLY!!!!! I hated wearing them, but nobody had invented in-the-ear, or in-the-canal hearing aids back in the 1960s. So as bad as they were, and as non-user friendly as they were, and despite how large they were - they worked and I wore them.
AO/Beck: So how did you get through all of that?
Linke-Ellis: I think it had a lot to do with having a strong sense of humor and having a supportive mom who made me appreciate that I was responsible for me. She made me believe that I could do anything I wanted to do. I was never treated like I had a disability, and I wasn't allowed to be a whiny teenager saying you don't understand and all that. The fact of the matter is, now at age 52 years, I can say with conviction that the only disability in life is a bad attitude. The important thing is not what happens to you, because you don't always get to choose that, but how you respond to things that happen to you is the key.
AO/Beck: So that brings us up to about 1993?
Linke-Ellis: Yes, as far as my hearing loss, that gets us to about 1993. Professionally, I was working on game shows and doing some TV work. I started as a production assistant and worked my way up to an associate producer through the 1970s. Of course it was really a tough because a lot of the time -- I had no idea what people were saying. I once took a job at ABC news, and I made a decision to not tell them I couldn't hear. Of course I wound up sweating bullets! They knew something was wrong with me but they couldn't figure out what it was.
AO/Beck: How long did the job last?
Linke-Ellis: I lasted about two years, it was in the mid-1970s, and I was a Valley Girl back then. I don't think I had ever read the front page of the paper, but there I was in the middle of ABC news. It was fantastic. I learned about the presidential election process and a million other things. I was in the control booth when President Carter gave his acceptance speech, it was very exciting - but again, I was pretty deaf, and had a very difficult time - but I did it, and I got through it. It wasn't easy, but it was worthwhile and wonderful and I was part of the team.
AO/Beck: OK, so then we're back to 1993, you were wearing hearing aids, and you were still working in television?
Linke-Ellis: Yes, it was 1993 and the fax was very common at that point, and there was captioning, and I was able to use the fax quite a bit to communicate. So it was a much easier situation to be in. Anyway, I joined up with Tripod, which is a school in Burbank and they were getting ready to do their annual film premiere with captions for the local deaf groups. When I saw the film, I said to myself, This is what I want to do with my life. I'm a show business baby and I love the business. Anyway, shortly after becoming involved with Tripod, I went completely deaf. At the time my thresholds were essentially 125 dB across the board in both ears. So there we were in 1994, and I went to the House Clinic in LA and got one of the first Clarion-Advanced Bionics Cochlear Implants.
AO/Beck: So you really did get an early implant. I'm thinking that was the year the FDA approved that device?
Linke-Ellis: Yes, I think so because I was in their clinical trials. Within three days of being hooked-up I was able to speak with my husband on the phone - for the very first time. It was breath taking and exciting all at the same time.
AO/Beck: It really does sound wonderful. So it's been about 7 years since you've been implanted. Obviously you're doing very well. We should explain to the readers that this is a phone interview. You and I are thousands of miles apart, and we've never met before. Nonetheless, you seem to understand every word I say and every question I ask through your cochlear implant across the phone wires.
Linke-Ellis: Yes, I really do well with the implant and I am so grateful for it.
AO/Beck: Yes, you do very well. If you don't mind, let's get back to your profession for a few moments.
Linke-Ellis: It was a little after I got my implant, that I realized my love for movies and my personal experience with deafness had led me to the point where my goal was to get deaf people into the movie theaters. I stayed on with Tripod and we started to develop our out reach program. In 1993 we had one film that came out once a year, and in 2001 we did almost 60 films in 500 cities.
AO/Beck: Are the films closed captioned?
Linke-Ellis: No, ours are open captioned. The difference is that these are like enhanced English sub-titles. The words are actually LASER etched right onto the print by Cinetyp, a company that specializes in 35 millimeter feature films. There is a very big difference between 35 millimeter film and videotape. This isn't at all like a close captioned video-tape. Videotape is a completely different technology where a signal is encoded into one master tape. A decoder (the captioning chip in your TV) is required to turn it on. So you can watch television or movie videos at home. Our films are only intended to play in first run movie houses.
AO/Beck: How would a deaf person, or anyone else know that the open captioned film is playing locally?
Linke-Ellis: The easiest thing to do is check our website, www.tripod.org. Another thing is that lots of local groups send out announcements, so many people get connected that way. It's important to realize that we do the major first run feature movies, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and many others too. So, folks with hearing loss or those who are deaf can go to the movie with their hearing friends, and everyone can enjoy the movie at the same time. Deaf people and hearing people haven't been able to enjoy the same movies at the same time since the 1920s - when the films were silent!
AO/Beck: Nanci, I want to thank you for the time you've spent with me today, and thank you for your energy and enthusiasm! The work you're doing is very important, and I hope you'll keep us updated.
Linke-Ellis: Sure Dr. Beck. Thanks for helping me spread the word about Tripod, and cochlear implants too.
AO/Beck: My pleasure Nanci.
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