a more silent world

My wife and I recently attended a seminar for parents of D/HoH kids. Having been HoH my entire life and now late-Deaf, I found this seminar more like a rehash of all my worst experiences as a school-age kid. This is actually a compliment to the presenters, since they clearly understand the challenges present when D/HoH kids are mainstreamed. One thing, though. I asked what I believe to be a very important question: "when classroom/curriculum modifications are made to accommodate a functionally deaf child who uses amplification, what happens when he loses the aids, they break, whatever, for one, two, three weeks???" My question was met with very disconcerting answers. Basically, he's screwed for a few weeks and will learn nothing. This is anything but a comforting feeling. DBC, are you listening? This is what real parents are facing. Can anyone give me a better answer?

Companies spend millions of dollars creating and airing commercials. With 10% of the population being Deaf/HoH, why in the world would they not spend a tiny bit more money adding captions? Do they think that we don't shop in their stores, buy their products, etc? It's very disconcerting sometimes how we are silently ignored as a minority group.