Younger Deaf Research Articles

Social Media Use and HIV Screening Uptake Among Deaf Adults in the United States: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

BackgroundAbout 46% of US adults obtain recommended HIV screening at least once during their lifetime. There is little knowledge of screening rates among deaf and hard-of-hearing adults who primarily use American Sign Language (ASL), or of social media as a potentially efficacious route for HIV prevention outreach, despite lower HIV/AIDS-specific health literacy and potentially higher HIV seropositivity rates than hearing peers.ObjectiveWe investigated both the likelihood of HIV screening uptake among deaf adults in the past year and over one year ago, and the relationship between social media use and HIV screening uptake among deaf adult ASL users.MethodsThe Health Information National Trends Survey in ASL was administered to 1340 deaf US adults between 2015-2018. Modified Poisson with robust standard errors was used to assess the relationship between social media usage as a predictor and HIV screening as an outcome (screened more than one year ago, screened within the past year, and never been screened), after adjusting for sociodemographics and sexually transmitted disease (STD) covariates.ResultsThe estimated lifetime prevalence of HIV screening uptake among our sample was 54% (719/1340), with 32% (429/1340) in the past year. Being of younger age, male gender, black, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer, or having some college education or a prior STD were associated with HIV screening uptake. Adjusting for correlates, social media use was significantly associated with HIV screening in the past year, compared to either lifetime or never.ConclusionsScreening falls well short of universal screening targets, with gaps among heterosexual, female, Caucasian, or older deaf adults. HIV screening outreach may not be effective because of technological or linguistic inaccessibility, rendering ASL users an underrecognized minority group. However, social media is still a powerful tool, particularly among younger deaf adults at risk for HIV.

Switched at Birth: A Game Changer for All Audiences

Switched at Birth: A Game Changer for All Audiences

Peasants, Warriors, and the Streams: Language Games and Etiologies of Deafness in Adamorobe, Ghana.

Me: Were you born deaf? Kwame Osae: Yes, I was born deaf. Me: How come? You have hearing parents, right? [Being born deaf is usually linked to having deaf parents] Kwame Osae: (slightly confused) I don’t know . . . maybe because of witches. Me: Ama Korkor [Kwame’s younger deaf sister] told me that she was born hearing. Kwame Osae: That is not true, we were all born deaf: me, Kofi Pare, Ama Korkor, Yaa Bomo, and Yaa Aketewa [i.e., his four younger deaf siblings]

Peasants, Warriors, and the Streams of Deafness. Language games and etiologies of deafness in Adamorobe, Ghana.

Me: Were you born deaf? Kwame Osae: Yes, I was born deaf. Me: How come? You have hearing parents, right? [Being born deaf is usually linked to having deaf parents] Kwame Osae: (slightly confused) I don't know… maybe because of witches. Me: Ama Korkor [Kwame's younger deaf sister] told me that she was born hearing. Kwame Osae: That is not true, we were all born deaf: me, Kofi Pare, Ama Korkor, Yaa Bomo and Yaa Aketewa [i.e. his four younger deaf siblings]. I decided to confront his version with the one of Ama Korkor and I called for her attention. She was sitting a bit further in the compound where they live. I reminded her that she once told me that she was born hearing. Ama Korkor: Yes, I don't know that myself… but my mother told me that I was hearing as a baby… This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Comparison of deaf and hearing children on measures of selective attention in two age groups.

The Stroop and Posner tasks, used as measures of expressive and receptive attention, were administered to two age groups of deaf and hearing children. The purpose was to determine if developmental age would affect subjects' performance and to compare performance of the deaf with hearing subjects. The mean age for the younger deaf subjects was 9.9 years and the younger hearing subjects was 9.4 years. The mean age for the older deaf and hearing subjects was 13.7 years each. The results revealed higher interference in the Stroop tasks for the younger deaf and hearing groups than for the older groups. There were no significant differences between deaf and hearing subjects' performance on the Stroop and Posner tasks when they were of similar age. The results indicate that the deaf had no difficulty compared to the hearing in either aspect of selective attention. It is suggested that separate norms for the Stroop and Posner tasks be developed based on developmental age.

National Survey on Telephone Services and Products: The Views of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People

A national study of 128 deaf and hard-of-hearing adults aged 18 to 70 years found that they are willing to pay as much as $15 per month for new telephone-based information services, in part because they are frustrated with what they regard as inadequate access to the nation's telecommunications network. The services they most want are "enhanced 911," fire, police, and other life and safety services. A majority wants the telecommunications network equipped with speech recognition capabilities as soon as the state-of-the-art permits, so that they can gain full access to network-based services. These findings suggest that changes in the national telecommunications policy might enhance the lives of deaf and hard-of-hearing adults. Policy changes might also permit them, as well as younger deaf Americans, to benefit more from the recently enacted Americans with Disabilities Act and to benefit more from other rights and services promoting access to work, education, and independent living.

PROBABILITY CONCEPTS IN DEAF AND HEARING CHILDREN

Hearing children at 5 ages, CA 7-15, and deaf children at 3 ages, CA 11-15, were compared on a 2-choice probability concept task. Ss made predictions at varying uneven odds, even odds, and for sure thing outcomes. Both deaf and hearing improved with increasing age. Younger deaf were slightly poorer, but older deaf, though still language deficient, caught up with the hearing. Although sure thing results indicated that the objective odds were generally known to Ss, incorrect predictions were numerous at older ages. Ss at all ages were sensitive to differences among uneven odds. However, with increasing age, Ss were more sensitive to the smaller departures from even odds. Occurrence of initial alternation of predictions decreased with increasing age but remained sizable at older ages. It was concluded that Ss show a developmental sequence in dealing with probability situations.