Deaf Qualitative Health Research: Leveraging Technology to Conduct Linguistically and Sociopolitically Appropriate Methods of Inquiry
Anderson, Melissa L ; Riker, Timothy ; Gagne, Kurt ; Hakulin, Stephanie ; Higgins, Todd ; Meehan, Jonah ; Stout, Elizabeth ; Pici-D’Ottavio, Emma ; Cappetta, Kelsey ; Wolf Craig, Kelly S.
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Keywords
cultural competence
deaf
health disparities
participatory action research
qualitative research
social equality
Communication
Communication Sciences and Disorders
Community-Based Research
Health Information Technology
Health Services Administration
Health Services Research
Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases
Psychiatry
Psychiatry and Psychology
Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies
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Abstract
One of the most understudied health disparity populations in the United States is the Deaf community-a sociolinguistic minority group of at least 500,000 individuals who communicate using American Sign Language. Research within this population is lacking, in part, due to researchers' use of methodologies that are inaccessible to Deaf sign language users. Traditional qualitative methods were developed to collect and analyze participants' spoken language. There is, therefore, a paradigm shift that must occur to move from an auditory data schema to one that prioritizes the collection and analysis of visual data. To effectively navigate this shift when working with Deaf sign language users, there are unique linguistic and sociopolitical considerations that should be taken into account. The current article explores these considerations and outlines an emerging method of conducting qualitative analysis that, we argue, has the potential to enhance qualitative researchers' work regardless of the population of focus.
Source
Qual Health Res. 2018 Sep;28(11):1813-1824. doi: 10.1177/1049732318779050. Epub 2018 Jun 11. Link to article on publisher's site