Results will be shared with RMC city halls and associations to support the planning of health actions and policies
The second phase of research coordinated by the professor from the Department of Human Development and Rehabilitation (DDHR) of the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) at Unicamp, Núbia Vianna, began – on the profile of deaf people, residents of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas (RMC) , over 18 years old, users or not of Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). The launch of the second stage of the study took place in Campinas, during the Entrepreneur's Fair for people with disabilities (PCDs), at Estação Cultura, in the central region of the city.
The first phase of the study was carried out in 2021 and involved the participation of 188 people, with the aim of tracing the number and main characteristics of deaf people. The stage consisted of filling out an online form accessible in Libras, which investigated information such as age, level of education, health conditions, use of services.
This time, with the support of the Secretariat of Social Assistance, Persons with Disabilities and Human Rights of the City of Campinas, the second phase of the study will expand the reach, through telephone contact, written message and video call, to approximately 450 deaf people assisted by the Libras Interpretation Center (CIL), a municipal service that offers Libras translation and interpretation professionals to accompany deaf people in institutions, services and public offices, with the aim of guaranteeing linguistic and communicational accessibility.
“One of our research objectives is to investigate the accessibility of Libras in health services, as we know that there is a major communication barrier between health professionals and deaf users”, commented Núbia. According to her, the research was motivated by the scarcity of studies aimed at this part of the population. “On a daily basis, deaf people face barriers to accessing healthcare. The difficulty in communicating with the doctor during a consultation is one of them,” she said.
According to the latest IBGE census, there are 124.070 people with hearing impairment in the RMC, that is, 4,43% of the total population. However, census research does not specify in this population group how many sign language users there are, nor what their characteristics are.
The second phase of the research conducted by the FCM professor will also have the support of the Association of the Deaf of Campinas (Assucamp) which, upon realizing the relevance of the research during the first phase, made efforts to publicize the research questionnaire on its social media. , becoming an important partner in the data collection process. “In the first phase of the research, people with hearing impairment who do not know Libras also responded to the form. With this, we understand that we must also consider in the research participation criteria, deaf people who do not communicate in Libras”, observed Nubia about the adaptation in data collection, which no longer considers fluency in Libras as a mandatory requirement.
Once the research is completed, the researchers will take the results to RMC city halls, in order to support public authorities in planning health actions and policies that are more inclusive and compatible with the health needs of deaf people. They will also be delivered to deaf associations to encourage the movement's fight to guarantee their rights.
In addition to Nubia Vianna, the following are part of the team for the second phase of the research: the 3rd year medical student at Unicamp, Laura Pereira; the statistician from the Postgraduate Program in Demography at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH) at Unicamp, Rafael Rodrigues de Moraes, the statistician Janaína de Rezende Barreto, who works voluntarily in the study, and the Speech Therapy student at Unicamp , Giovanna Cordeiro, BAS-SAE scholarship holder.
Join!
People with hearing impairment, residents of RMC, can participate in the second phase of the research by responding to the online form available at this website. link, from July 01st to October 31st, 2022.
This text was originally published on FCM Unicamp portal.
