Deaf Rhetoric: An Ecology of Health Communication

This book guides healthcare professionals, hospital  administrators, and medical interpreters in the United States (and  internationally) in ways to better communicate with Deaf and Hard of  Hearing (D/HH) patients and sign language interpreters in healthcare  settings. It also provides an overview of the healthcare communication  issues with healthcare professionals and D/HH patients, and the  advantages and disadvantages of using in-person interpreters vs. video  remote interpreting (VRI). Due to technology development, hospital  administrators have popularized the use of VRI and reduced the number of  in-person interpreting services, which have negatively affected the  quality of medical interpreting services and patient-provider  communication. The COVID-19 pandemic also has accelerated the move  toward more VRI, particularly in the US.

The book addresses an  understudied aspect of access and is written by an international deaf  researcher from Japan who uses American Sign Language (ASL) and English  as non-native languages. In order to identify appropriate interpreting  services for specific treatments, the author focuses on healthcare  professionals' and D/HH patients' interpreting preferences for critical  and non-critical care in the US, and offers a new theoretical framework,  an Ecology of Health Communication, to contextualize and analyze these  preferences. The ecological matrix and its five analytical dimensions  (i.e., physical-material, psychological, social, spatial, and temporal)  allow readers to understand how these dimensions influence healthcare  professionals' and D/HH patients' interpreting preferences as well as  the treatment outcomes. This book concludes by prioritizing the use of  an appropriate interpreter for specific treatments and allocating funds  for in-person interpreters for critical care treatments.

Deaf Rhetoric: An Ecology of Health Communication is primarily designed for healthcare professional students and  professionals, hospital administrators, medical interpreters, VRI  companies, and healthcare researchers. Scholars interested in the  communication preferences of healthcare professionals and deaf people  also will find this text useful. The book counters some of the power  differences between healthcare providers and those who use medical  services, and subtly reminds others that deaf people are not solely the  receivers of medical care but actually are full people. The field of  health care is growing and medical schools are increasingly called on to  address cultural competencies; this resource provides a needed  intervention.