Abstract
The members of the deaf communities have been excluded for many years from society and their own culture. Deaf culture is a term applied to the social movement that holds deafness to be a difference in human experience (which includes the right to use Sign Language) rather than a disability. The deaf suffer, daily, through life-threatening situations that go unattended, mostly due to lack of awareness, proper practices, and policies, among others. The Deaf are in dire need of acknowledgment of their plight, in particular by Health and Social Care practitioners, politicians, and researchers. This chapter calls attention to this minority and its needs, including social, political, citizenship, strategies, and polices dimensions. It presents a Human-Computer Interaction architecture with which to inform the design of Information and Communication Technologies to aid Health and Social Care professionals in their work with the deaf.
TopHealth And Social Care For The Deaf
The Deaf are members of the society with specific characteristics, such as culture, identity, and means of communication, among others, who must be respected in their needs. In such cases, HSC must aggregate other dimensions when it comes to awareness, public policies, tools, etc., and must break down the barriers of appearances, so that effective knowledge about the elements that constitutes the reality with which practioners and researchers must act upon the social issue can emerge. Therefore, capacitation must occur, in order for planning and action with propriety, so that HSC may become a transforming agent for this minority, whose need for full-fledged citizenship cannot be deprived of such services and policies.
Key Terms in this Chapter
H.C.I. for the Deaf: Computer systems interactions regarding the needs of the deaf.
Human-Computer Interaction: Computer Science area that studies the adequate ways systems should present interactions to accommodate human characteristics.
Audism: Counter-movement from the Deaf, rejecting oralism.
Sign Language: The natural language of the Deaf used for more than communication, such as knowledge creation.
Oralism: Movement that imposed the oral/spoken language to the deaf.
Social Inclusion of the Deaf: Effective participation of members of the Deaf community in the designs of the society.
Deaf Culture: Social movement that regards deafness as a difference in human experience rather than a disability.