Articles on the Deaf and Disability community and the Impact within Healthcare.
- Marian Santiago-Galarza
- Nov 28, 2021
- 6 min read
ASL is an important means of communication for those who are in the Deaf community especially when it comes to healthcare, but there are also other benefits of ASL as well outside of healthcare. This article will talk about different research that has been shown of ASL and the benefits it has within the healthcare field and outside the healthcare field on learning and using ASL. Some articles will even talk about the impact of inclusiveness in a broader term such as those of the Disability community and how inclusiveness and incorporating them within the healthcare field is just as important to providing the care that they need from Healthcare professionals not only of Occupational Therapist, but in general.
“Assessing Health Literacy in Deaf American Sign Language Users.”
This article went into the impact of Deaf community with how the lack of ASL knowledge can impact health literacy for those individuals. It talked about the struggles that those who are Deaf and use sign language have to deal with in terms of receiving, knowing, and understanding the care that they are being given. It is especially important since they depend on sign language as their main means of communication compared to English. This is talked more in depth with it showing that those who were seeking treatment for health issues had a harder time understanding health professionals due to not knowing what they are saying in English. This was stated to be due to lack of proficiency in the English language then those who are proficient in the language. This brings an important conversation not only in ways that those in the healthcare field can be adaptive to help those who are Deaf such as technology, but the need for health professionals to include methods to continue to make the barriers in communication easier. Some ways to make communication easier are things such as learning basic signs and terminology that can help those who are Deaf or Hearing understand what is being told to them or the integration of methods that can be made to quickly and efficiently communicate with Deaf individuals even without an interpreter.
More information in the article below:
McKee, M. M., Paasche-Orlow, M. K., Winters, P. C., Fiscella, K., Zazove, P., Sen, A., & Pearson, T. (2015). Assessing health literacy in Deaf American Sign Language users. Journal of Health Communication, 20 Suppl 2(sup2), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2015.1066468
"Academic achievement of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in an ASL/English bilingual program"
This article talks about those who are in the Deaf community and the benefits of ASL along with the learning of English. This is an important research article on how it stated that the learning of both ASL as well as English helps to create more proficiency when using ASL along with being able to understand the English language better. This article was chosen due to the fact that although ASL within the healthcare field is beneficial to those who are Deaf, the understanding of the English language to those who primarily use ASL is also important. It stated that those who use ASL have a below average reading performance in the English language and it can have an impact especially within their sign language skills. It was stated that the increase in knowledge of the English language, even if they use ASL as a main use of communication, can help them within the use of ASL. With an increase in English proficiency it also provides a greater understanding of the world around them which uses English as a main use of communication.
More information in the article below:
Hrastinski, I., & Wilbur, R. B. (2016). Academic achievement of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in an ASL/English bilingual program. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 21(2), 156–170. https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/env072
"An alternative approach to early literacy: The effects of ASL in educational media on literacy skills acquisition for hearing children"
This article talks instead of benefits of learning the English language to those who use ASL, instead it is vice versa with the learning of ASL for those who use English. This research article highlights that learning English has been a benefit to those who use ASL, but the same method can also work for those who are English speaking. It stated that the use of ASL along with English learning has some potential benefits for both those of ASL users and those of English speakers seen within the educational setting. They stated that the use of ASL signing along with sound shown to those who are learning some English literacy milestones were able to have a better understanding of some forms of language not only in their native English language, but in sign language also. This shows that ASL learning can be something that can be seen as beneficial to promote more literacy within not only those who are Deaf with learning English, but vice versa.
More information in the article below:
Moses, A. M., Golos, D. B., & Bennett, C. M. (2015). An alternative approach to early literacy: The effects of ASL in educational media on literacy skills acquisition for hearing children. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43(6), 485–494. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0690-9
"Deaf sign language users, health inequities, and public health: opportunity for social justice"
In this article it talks about both the issues faced by Deaf individuals within the field of healthcare in seeking treatment and what can be done to fix some of the issues that Deaf individuals face. Some negatives that are talked about are the limitations that Deaf individuals experience such as health literacy,communication barriers, and more. These negatives highlight some of the main issues that people within the Deaf community face daily when interacting with healthcare professionals. The research article also highlights some of the areas that can be improved to help remove those negatives that the Deaf community faces. This is added to show that there are ways to create more inclusion within Healthcare and working with Deaf individuals . This article helps highlight not only the benefits of providing more inclusion for the Deaf community, but also helps recognize the areas that may be lacking within the healthcare system when it comes to those of different communities. It also shows that there are solutions to provide inclusiveness not only within the Deaf community, but inclusiveness that can be done with other communities as well that struggle in getting the help that they need. Such examples of this are the disability community, other languages, and cultures.
More information in the article below:
Barnett, S., McKee, M., Smith, S. R., & Pearson, T. A. (2011). Deaf sign language users, health inequities, and public health: opportunity for social justice. Preventing Chronic Disease, 8(2), A45. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21324259
"Disability and the training of health professionals"
The last article I will be talking about is “disability and the training of health professionals”
This final article talks about overall what can be done for healthcare workers with working with those who are disabled. This can be from being Deaf, Blind, to having a physical, mental or even an invisible disability. This is an important article and although it is not solely based on those of the Deaf community, it does include them as an important factor on how to create change. It brings to light the issues that healthcare professionals have in terms of equality to those of disabilities and the view of those with disabilities. It highlights the importance of removing barriers and labels that are associated with being disabled in working to help them get the care that they need. It talks about different things that can be done to help professionals remove the barriers that they may subconsciously created when working with those who are disabled. Examples include not considering that they are just like other patients, the difference in the way they compare disabled and non-disabled individuals, and more. It also brought the importance of removing those barriers and labels and to consider the impact that it can create with it with the need for inclusion and change. An example they mentioned is the need for learning about inclusion within schools of by teaching about disabilities. Another important mention in removing these barriers and labels is with interacting and working with them side by side whether as colleagues, family members, or more. They stated that it is a key way to remove the idea of the idea of what disabilities is and what the term encompasses within the healthcare field when working with those individuals.
More information in the article below:
Shakespeare, T., Iezzoni, L. I., & Groce, N. E. (2009). Disability and the training of health professionals. Lancet, 374(9704), 1815–1816. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(09)62050-x
Although there is a limited amount of research on the benefits of ASL with Hearing individuals learning and using it within the healthcare setting there are other benefits seen. These articles highlight the impact that the ASL community along with the disability community can bring a positive impact to the healthcare community. These articles show the benefit of change within the healthcare community and how it can not only benefit those that need it, but also the healthcare community as a whole. With this change, it can even help in the community in general to change and make it more inclusive to not just the Deaf community, but of other cultures, languages, disabilities, and more.
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