Abstract
BackgroundMany cultural and linguistic Deaf people in South Africa face disparity when accessing health information because of social and language barriers. The number of certified South African Sign Language interpreters (SASLIs) is also insufficient to meet the demand of the Deaf population in the country. Our research team, in collaboration with the Deaf communities in Cape Town, devised a mobile health app called SignSupport to bridge the communication gaps in health care contexts. We consequently plan to extend our work with a Health Knowledge Transfer System (HKTS) to provide Deaf people with accessible, understandable, and accurate health information. We conducted an explorative study to prepare the groundwork for the design and development of the system.ObjectivesTo investigate the current modes of health information distributed to Deaf people in Cape Town, identify the health information sources Deaf people prefer and their reasons, and define effective techniques for delivering understandable information to generate the groundwork for the mobile health app development with and for Deaf people.MethodsA qualitative methodology using semistructured interviews with sensitizing tools was used in a community-based codesign setting. A total of 23 Deaf people and 10 health professionals participated in this study. Inductive and deductive coding was used for the analysis.ResultsDeaf people currently have access to 4 modes of health information distribution through: Deaf and other relevant organizations, hearing health professionals, personal interactions, and the mass media. Their preferred and accessible sources are those delivering information in signed language and with communication techniques that match Deaf people’s communication needs. Accessible and accurate health information can be delivered to Deaf people by 3 effective techniques: using signed language including its dialects, through health drama with its combined techniques, and accompanying the information with pictures in combination with simple text descriptions.ConclusionsWe can apply the knowledge gained from this exploration to build the groundwork of the mobile health information system. We see an opportunity to design an HKTS to assist the information delivery during the patient-health professional interactions in primary health care settings. Deaf people want to understand the information relevant to their diagnosed disease and its self-management. The 3 identified effective techniques will be applied to deliver health information through the mobile health app.
Highlights
Rigorous linguistic methodology applied to this language system of visual symbols has led to conclusions about its structure, which add to the sum Correspondence to: Marc Marschark, Department of Research, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, 96 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623 E-mail: Marc.Marschark@RIT.EDU
The system of transcription presented here as a tool for analysis may recommend itself to the deaf or hearing user of the language as a way of recording for various purposes this hitherto unwritten language. Those whose work in education or other social service brings them into contact with deaf children or adults may find both the conclusions and the system of writing the language helpful and suggestive
In a century a linguistic community had developed, and a committee composed of deaf adults instructed in the Parisian and similar French schools, and of interested hearing persons, were making their views felt in the linguistically complicated educational controversies
Summary
The system of transcription presented here as a tool for analysis may recommend itself to the deaf or hearing user of the language as a way of recording for various purposes this hitherto unwritten language. In a century a linguistic community had developed, and a committee composed of deaf adults instructed in the Parisian and similar French schools, and of interested hearing persons, were making their views felt in the linguistically complicated educational controversies Their interest was in the use, the extension, and the public acceptance of their language, which from Pelissier’s iconography appears to be the ‘natural’ sign language with a difference. This work, though an interesting exploration of such questions as spontaneous language origin and development and the psychological-linguistic implications of visual instead of visual-acoustic orientation and of esoteric and exoteric languages and their grammatical-logical categories, has slight bearing on the present study for several reasons: In Holland where his observations were made, signing alone, or with simultaneous spoken accompaniment as practiced in many American schools, is not used as a medium of instruction. Future plans include historical studies and comparisons with sign languages of other cultures
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