Deaf Representation Matters in Healthcare
Health is one of the most underfunded and overlooked areas of society - yet it affects every single one of us. When public health is not prioritized, marginalized communities, including deaf people, are often the first to feel the consequences. If research, programs, and policies don’t include us, our needs go unrecognized, and our healthcare access suffers.
At DeafHealth, one of our core goals is to strengthen the Deaf community’s participation in healthcare research and drive meaningful improvements in healthcare access and equity. Here’s how we’re making change:
🤝 Building a Deaf Patient Coalition with diverse stakeholders—doctors, lawyers, patients, advocates, and researchers.
💡 Equipping members with tools and knowledge to understand and guide patient-centered research focused on what truly matters to us.
📊 Gathering community input to shape future research, policies, and standards that reflect our lived experiences.
Why does this matter? Because we have been left out of too many research and policy conversations. We need more inclusion, more representation - and we need YOU now more than ever.
This update is provided as part of the “Building Capacity for Deaf American Sign Language Users in Virtual Healthcare PCOR/CER” project, which is funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award (EACB-35309). To learn more, visit: www.pcori.org/research-results/2024/building-capacity-deaf-american-sign-language-users-virtual-healthcare-pcorcer. For project updates, follow us on social media or sign up with your email at deafhealthaccess.org/sign-up.
Transcript and Video Description
Video Description: [The post has a video thumbnail with blue shading overlaid. The top middle has "Deaf Representation Matters in Healthcare" in white text with rose background. In the video: A woman with blonde wavy hair is sitting in front of the camera with shelves, books, and decorative items behind her. She is wearing a black shirt.
Transcript: Recent changes in health policies, programs, and funding may cause a severe impact on our health. Already, the healthcare system is not accessible. As resources may become more scarce, it is critical to address these gaps now. One of DeafHealth’s goals is to strengthen the Deaf community’s participation in healthcare research to help improve our community’s health, wellbeing, and the rest of our lives. It is still important to gather your input, opinions, feedback, and your experiences so that we can share with important stakeholders including government at the state, local, and federal level as well as private stakeholders. We have just set up a coalition of Deaf people themselves, who have important, lived experience - including doctors, lawyers, government officials, community advocates, and researchers. These individuals are important stakeholders. The coalition has emphasized that it is critical to recognize that the system, research, new technologies such as telehealth, are severely behind and may become worse now. It is critical that we continue this work. The screen fades to show a thumbnail of a faded white background of a doctor holding hands with another individual] Deaf. Healthy. DeafHealth. Learn more at www.deafhealthaccess.org.]