Crisis interpreting and Deaf community understanding during the COVID-19 pandemic: results from a South Korea-based survey.

Abstract

This study explores the South Korean Deaf community's response to sign language interpreting during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) health crisis, focusing on individual factors affecting the signers' comprehension. The data were collected from a mobile-based questionnaire survey conducted among 401 Deaf adults; binary probit modelling was adopted to analyse the data. The major findings are: (i) 59.9 per cent of the respondents understood less than 70 per cent of the interpreting; (ii) males and urban residents tend to understand better; (iii) younger people (less than 50 years) and signers with a Bachelor's degree or higher are likely to have lower comprehension; and (iv) Deaf adults who visited a doctor after the COVID-19 outbreak tended to have lower comprehension. The findings demonstrate that individual characteristics, including age, impact significantly on the extent to which Deaf individuals understand the sign language interpreting of COVID-19 information, indicating that steps are needed to achieve a Deaf-inclusive society during a health disaster.