Design Direction Analysis for a Health Knowledge Transfer System for Deaf People and Health Professionals in Cape Town

摘要

Many South African Deaf people use South African Sign Language (SASL) for communication, but are less skilled at reading and writing. In the context of healthcare, adult Deaf patients and health professionals therefore face problems with communication. These communication barriers hinder many Deaf people from accessing health information from various sources. Deaf patients need to understand conversations at a health facility, and also to receive accurate and comprehensible health information that supports their understanding of the diagnosed disease for self-management. Health Knowledge Transfer System (HKTS) is a proposed branch from a research and development project on a mobile communication tool (SignSupport) for a Deaf person in healthcare contexts. This paper describes the findings retrieved during the exploration phase regarding the design direction of the HKTS using a community-based co-design (CBCD) approach. Deaf adults and health professionals from Cape Town participated in this research. Health information about Type 2 diabetes as a case study and mobile devices as information transferring tools were selected. The HTKS is envisioned as part of an assistive device for health care system integration to provide information in SASL thus serving the needs of the Deaf patients. It focuses on a scenario in which the targeted diabetic Deaf patients can access health information from anywhere.