Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115461

Robert Pollard, PhD, Dept of Psychiatry, University of Rochester, 300 Crittenden Blvd., Rochester, NY 14642, 585 275 3544, Robert_Pollard@urmc.rochester.edu

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention recently funded the establishment of a Prevention Research Center solely devoted to investigating health and disease prevention in the deaf population. The National Center on Deaf Health Research (NCDHR) is organized via a community-participatory model wherein the deaf population is framed as a linguistic and cultural minority rather than a disability group. This is a significant departure from the perspective of prominent deafness research organizations (e.g., the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, the Deafness Research Foundation) whose research missions involve the treatment and prevention of hearing loss, not the general health and well-being of individuals who happen to be deaf. In contrast, the NCDHR recognizes that the unique characteristics, strengths, and struggles of the deaf population – sign language use, Deaf culture, generally limited English literacy, lack of access to sign language interpreters in healthcare settings, limitations in access to healthcare information – present a wholly unique mosaic of issues relevant to effective healthcare and related research, unlike any other disability or language minority group. These unique issues lead to unique frameworks, obligations, and strategies for conducting ethical research with the deaf population. Arguably, such research is more akin to cross-cultural research than research with vulnerable populations or other models. The NCDHR presenter has published and lectured widely on ethics in deafness research. This presentation will delineate the central tenets of ethical research involving the deaf population, highlighting the relationship to cross-cultural research in general and matters unique to deaf research participants.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how cross-cultural research ethics pertain to much of the research that involves the deaf population
• Learn how consensus opinions on cross-cultural research ethics specifically apply to deafness research
• Learn what other ethical obligations are unique to research with the deaf population
• Participate in a discussion of how deaf population research ethics should be disseminated and addressed in the healthcare research community

Keywords: Deaf, Research Ethics

Related Web page: www.urmc.rochester.edu/dwc

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.