First diabetes website launched in American Sign Language helps address serious problem in Deaf community

SALT LAKE CITY — For the first time ever, members of the public can access diabetes education online in American Sign Language, courtesy of the University of Utah.

According to University of Utah Associate Professor Michelle Litchman, deaf and hard-of-hearing people have triple the risk of diabetes. Litchman said there may be a few reasons for that, but she believes the largest factor is a lack of health care information in their native language.

“I’ve seen time and time again their struggle to get health information because interpreters aren’t always provided and information often is in English,” Litchman said. 

This inspired Litchman to create of the Deaf Diabetes Can Together website.

Litchman grew up surrounded in Deaf culture. Her mother is deaf, along with five of her aunts and uncles. 

Witnessing the challenge of finding information for deaf and hard-of-hearing people while becoming a nurse practitioner specializing in diabetes care, Litchman thought she could do something about it.

She started working with an advisory board full of deaf and hard-of-hearing members and interpreters from around the country.

Accessing health information in the Deaf community

“One of the things that came out of meeting with them is they said they really needed health information that was easily accessible in their primary language, American Sign Language,” Litchman said.

70% of parents of deaf children never learn ASL, according to Litchman, and living in a hearing world can be very difficult to gain passive information.

For example, if the family is speaking about their grandma who has diabetes, the deaf child is left out of the conversation and may miss crucial information, helping them know the warning signs they should look for in their own health.

It is also unreliable to go to the doctors for information.

“You go to the clinic, the statistic is half of the time that a deaf person requests an interpreter, one does not show up,” Litchman said. “So imagine going to the doctor’s office and half of the time you can’t communicate your needs and you can’t understand the instructions that are given to you.”

Litchman said having a website in their own native language is crucial to delivering important healthcare information.

“People make an assumption that American Sign Language is visual English and it’s not,” Litchman said. “It’s two completely different languages, two different grammar structures and syntax.”

Litchman said giving an English pamphlet to someone who uses ASL is like being given a pamphlet in Spanish.

A deaf person uses their whole body to communicate, along with facial expressions to get information across. When it comes to learning about your own body and health, having that information in your own native language is crucial.

“Sign language is more than hands. It’s also where your shoulder placement is, it’s your facial expression,” Litchman said. “The way that we’re describing different components of diabetes, those facial expressions matter because they actually help also tell the story.”

Features of American Sign Language website

The website features headings in simple English along with a GIF  communicating the information in ASL. Additional information is communicated in videos with closed captioning and an English voiceover.

“We’re actually explaining the pathophysiology of what’s happening inside the body so they can see visually what’s going on,” Litchman said.

There is also a glossary of frequently used medical terms. Litchman said across the country there were different signs for medical terms and not everyone knows the signs, including interpreters.

“We worked with this community advisory board and certified deaf interpreters and diabetes researchers who are deaf and also clinicians who are hearing. We all worked together to really determine what the diabetes signs should be,” she said.

The glossary will continue to be updated with more information and terms.

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Contributing: Joe Wirthlin, KSL

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