201262 Involving Deaf persons as researchers: Culturally and linguistically appropriate approach to certifying Deaf community members in research ethics

Monday, November 9, 2009: 4:45 PM

Jess Cuculick, MSW, MEd , Department of Liberal Studies, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Angela Hauser , Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Rochester Prevention Research Center: The National Center for Deaf Health Research (NCDHR) is charged to identify health disparities within Deaf communities. Their framework uses the community based participatory research in order to conduct culturally and linguistically sensitive research. The Deaf Health Community Committee (DHCC) is a partnership between Deaf Communities, researchers, and health providers to promote an understanding of the health needs of culturally Deaf people (American Sign Language users), to identify issues essential to creating parity between the Deaf and general population, across the nation. DHCC is charged with helping with subject recruitment and to advise NCDHR for all of their research processes including sampling, methodology, findings, and discussion of their results. Because of DHCC's involvement with the research process, they were required to be certified in research ethics. Most members of DHCC are Deaf and American Sign Language (ASL) is considered as their native language. Written English certification exams are not accessible for many Deaf people, therefore preparing for the certification process involved translation from written English to ASL. In addition to the translation, the preparation process included intensive group interaction communicating in ASL, which helped members understand research ethics in ways that would have not been comparable if conducted in written English. The presenters will give an overview on the certifying process, benefits and challenges of this process, and to share recommendations.

Learning Objectives:
Describe how preparing for the certification exam was conducted in a culturally and linguistically relevant manner. List the benefits and challenges of certifying a community committee in research ethics.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Ed.D student at the University of Rochester, expecting my degree in 2010. I have also presented at numerous local, state and national conferences. APHA will be my first public health conference.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.