Health care of deaf persons during coronavirus pandemics

ABSTRACT Objective: To reflect about the barriers experienced by the deaf population during the COVID-19 pandemic, the proposals to overcome communication barriers in health care and the role of public policies in effecting the social inclusion of deaf people. Methods: Reflection based on studies on health care for deaf people, the COVID-19 pandemic and public accessibility policies. Results: The global crisis of COVID-19 has deepened pre-existing inequalities in the world, in addition to highlighting the vulnerability of people with disabilities, including deaf. Government, institutional and social initiatives to mitigate difficulties in communicating to deaf people have been made, but they are still insufficient to guarantee protection for them in this pandemic and full inclusion in health care. Final considerations: Social inclusion, supported by law, and the linguistic accessibility of deaf people still need to generate broad and concrete actions so that deaf people can enjoy their rights as citizens.

Głusi i tłumacze PJM o tłumaczeniu języka migowego w Polsce kiedyś i dziś

Sign Language Interpreting in the Opinions of Deaf Persons and Polish Sign Language Interpreters The article presents the results of a research conducted among 12 deaf people and 11 Polish sign language interpreters, aimed at depicting the state-of-the-art situation of sign language interpreting in Poland while it simultaneously reflects upon the past as well. The interviewees reported on the changes in this area over the last twenty-five years. According to them, situation in Poland has improved significantly with regard to language, interpreting as such, legal-administrative and social issues. Still, in many respects sign language interpreting needs further improvement in order to attain full accessibility for deaf persons as well as full professionalisation for sign language interpreters.

Integrating Enactive and Intercorporeal Approaches to Interaction and Interaction Analysis: d/Deaf Persons and Animals. In Search of the ‘In-Between’ and Adequate Methodologies

"How does understanding occur in encounters of living beings? What is experienced by the interaction partners and what happens in the ‘In-Between’? And how can this be captured? In this paper an enactive approach to interaction is proposed with the focus on reciprocal intercorporeal attunement and co-creation of meaning in a specific environment. As alternative framework this approach is applied to the interaction of d/Deaf persons and animals. In the interaction with an animal, verbal communication - which is challenging for d/Deaf persons - is of secondary importance, so this frame is well suited to focus on intercorporeal attunement. In the interaction discourse regarding d/Deaf persons as well as Human-Animal-Interaction the assessment of the interaction process as such and embodied research methodologies are scarcely to be found. With the enactive approach new perspectives on the mechanisms of interaction and the influencing conditions can be opened as well as new approaches to respective research options. Keywords: d/Deaf, Human-Animal-Interaction, Intercorporeality, Embodied Cognition, Embodied methodologies, Enactive approach, resonance "

Factor analysis of the cross-cultural adaptation of the Multidimensional Attitudes Scale towards deaf persons in chilean dental students

There are various instruments to measure attitudes toward persons with disabilities (PwD). The Multidimensional Attitudes Scale (MAS) toward PwD is a three-dimension scale with good psychometric properties; the Spanish version has been validated with a four-factor structure. Aim: To examine the factor structure of a cross-cultural adapted version of the Spanish MAS towards deaf persons in a sample of Chilean dental students. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved five Chilean public health experts that reviewed the scale for obtaining a preliminary version of a 30-item modified MAS towards deaf persons; a pilot with 15 dental students was performed, and a final sample composed of 311 students was included. For the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), maximum likelihood estimation (ML) for determining the number of factors and parallel analysis (PA) was used, with Oblimin for the rotation method. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability. The root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), comparative fit index (CFI), incremental fit index (IFI), goodness of fit index (GFI), Tucker-Lewis fit index (TLI-NNF) and root mean square of residuals (RMSR) were used to assess model fit. Results: All items had a normal distribution with the exception of items 7 and 10. The four-factor structure without item 10 in this EFA presented an adequate Cronbach’s alpha (>0.83), suggesting acceptable reliability. RMSEA, TLI-NNFI, RMSR, GFI and CFI indices suggested a good fit of the model and were consistent with the literature. Conclusion: The Spanish modified version of the MAS towards deaf persons has a four-factor structure, which in consistent with a previous version of the MAS.

The First Steps in the State Systematization of Special Education: Ukrainian Experience

The paper will substantiate the author’s version of the retrospective analysis of the organizing in Ukraine in the 1920s-1930s the first state education system for the special children (the disabled), that is, children with physical or mental problems – blind, deaf, persons with mental or psychoneurotic problems. It is substantiated that for the first time in the history of national education, the state approach to the examination and selection, training, education, socialization or care of such children were legalized. In addition to specialized classes and boarding schools, the system of institutions for special children also included sanatorium schools, clinic schools, and speech therapy courses. During this period of time, a network of research institutions was also created – medical and pedagogical offices (1922), departments at the Ukrainian Research Institute of Pedagogy (1926) and the Ukrainian Psychoneurological Institute (1922), whose researches were engaged in the study of the special children and the development of methods for their rehabilitation training and possible correction of the health state. From the very beginning, the problem of the special children was considered in the unity of the pedagogical and medical aspects.

National Belonging Through Signed and Spoken Languages: The Case of Finland-Swedish Deaf People in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

In the chapter, Lindberg analyzes the role of nationalism and language among the Finland-Swedish deaf people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Finland. Although the deaf community in many cases defined itself as standing on the sidelines of national conflicts, Lindberg shows, by examining published letters by deaf persons belonging to the Swedish minority in Finland, how nationalism was incorporated into everyday experiences. Focusing on periods of language conflicts in Finnish society, Lindberg shows, furthermore, how the Swedish and Finnish languages were used to divide and spark conflict, while sign language united deaf people belonging to different linguistic groups in Finland.

3. Deaf Persons and Sign Languages

Chapter 3 introduces the reader to various aspects of sign languages, including their historical development and use within educational contexts by Deaf communities in Europe and the United States. Also covered is the initiation of the field of sign language linguistics by William C. Stokoe, a linguist who systematically proved that American Sign Language (ASL) was indeed a language with its own distinct structure and properties that differed from any spoken language. The phonological parameters of signs receive considerable attention, highlighting ways in which the unique properties of sign languages allow them to represent meaning in ways that are more consistently transparent and iconic than similar phenomena in the speech modality. Despite these similarities across sign languages, the differences among the sign languages of the world led Deaf persons to create and develop the lingua franca of International Sign (previously Gestuno) for use at international conventions. Finally, the similarities and distinctions between the processes of language development and acquisition across the modalities of speech and sign are discussed, as well as how signing benefits the learning of spoken language vocabulary by hearing children.

7. Use of Manual Signs and Gestures by Hearing Persons

In Chapter 7, the authors change focus from the use of signs by deaf persons and with individuals with disabilities to how signing may enhance the learning and processing of spoken language by typically developing hearing children and adults. The first topic examined is the use of signs to foster infants’ and young children’s acquisition of their principal spoken language. Signs may further serve as an effective intervention strategy in academic settings for children with ADHD or as a means to improving vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension for children who lag behind their age group on various language performance measures. Iconic signs and representative gestures may also be used to facilitate the acquisition of foreign language vocabulary when the signs are paired with the to-be-learned words. Finally, various studies concerning the positive benefits of learning to sign promote the possibility that using the visual-gestural modality may confer increased skills in various cognitive domains such as spatial memory, mental rotation, and facial discrimination.