New Strategies for Reducing Cancer Disparities in the Deaf Community

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Gaining up-to-date cancer prevention and early detection knowledge is difficult for everyone. Perhaps more difficult is sorting through the information needed to make informed decisions quickly. This process becomes even harder when language and cultural barriers exist. The Deaf community is like all other communities who face cultural barriers, as well as language and reading barriers associated with using English when it is an acquired second language. However, few health promotion programs are available to serve them. An ongoing project of this partnership, of Deaf affinity organizations, is to create cancer education videos in American Sign Language (ASL) for the Deaf community. This proposal will test a new strategy for improving the Deaf community's access to cancer information and care. It addresses the need for more medical terminology signs within American Sign Language (ASL) and for ASL interpreters to have a better understanding of oncology when translating. One of the partnership agencies, the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), recognized that these same videos could be the foundation of an oncology training program disseminated to ASL interpreters nationwide. As they use their more advanced cancer knowledge and interpreting skills with clients coping with cancer, interpreters will also be able to direct their clients to the existing library of cancer education videos, thereby further disseminating knowledge and use of those existing resources. This project will: 1) maintain an on-going consensus building discussion to identify or develop the best signs to explain cancer, cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and palliation; 2) create and promote an on-line glossary of medical terms and their parallel ASL signs that the consensus panel recommends for use by the Deaf community and the interpreters who serve them; 3) cross promote the ASL cancer education videos on the ASL cancer glossary website and cross promote the ASL cancer glossary website on the ASL cancer education videos website; 4) define the foundation of basic cancer knowledge and scientific literacy that would facilitate ASL interpreters' ability to produce clearer interpretations for their clients when translating cancer-related interactions; 5) create educational modules on DVD that will give the interpreter an understanding of the most common cancer and scientific concepts and treatment options, plus develop pre- and post-training surveys intended to assess the degree of interpreters' change in knowledge following completion of each training module; 6) invite ASL interpreters to use the modules and pre- and post-education surveys to test whether the modules and supplementary training materials succeed in raising the interpreters' knowledge of essential cancer information; 7) take at least 250 interpreters nationwide through the final training modules to reach a tipping point in the number of ASL interpreters who would be prepared to undertake an ASL Oncology Certification Exam; and 8) turn over the developed ASL Oncology Program to RID or other agency then responsible administering training and certification exams.