Community participatory research with deaf sign language users to identify health inequities

This film is an adaptation, presented in American Sign Language (ASL) with English captions, of a peer-reviewed written English public health journal article. The article reports findings from community participatory research using an ASL accessible health survey, and analyses that compare the ASL survey findings with those from the local telephone health survey. The film conveys in ASL the main points of the written English article. In addition to language translation (from English to ASL), the film team, comprised of deaf and hearing members, made the article content accessible by presenting the information in a culturally congruent way, with dialog between deaf characters in the context of a story that feels relevant to the viewer. This approach can be used to reach deaf audiences with other public health messages. A similar approach can be used with other populations. The film production was a collaborative effort of members of the Deaf community and research team. There is no voice track or other audio.