title: Preferences for communication in clinic from deaf people: a cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the preferences of deaf people for communication in a hospital consultation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Design--cross-sectional survey, using a structured, postal questionnaire. Setting--survey of readers of two journals for deaf and hard of hearing people. Participants--999 self-selected individuals with hearing loss in the UK, including those who use sign language and those who use speech. Main outcome measures--preferred mode of communication.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 11% of participants preferred to use sign language within everyday life, 70% used speech and 17% used a mixture of sign and speech. Within a clinic setting, 50% of the sign language users preferred to have a consultation via a sign language interpreter and 43% indicated they would prefer to only have a consultation directly with a signing health professional; 7% would accept a consultation in speech as long as there was good deaf awareness from the health professional, indicated by a knowledge of lip-reading/speech-reading. Of the deaf speech users, 98% preferred to have a consultation in speech and of this group 71% indicated that they would only accept this if the health professional had good deaf awareness. Among the participants who used a mixture of sign language and speech, only 5% said they could cope with a consultation in speech with no deaf awareness whereas 46% were accepting of a spoken consultation as long as it was provided with good deaf awareness; 30% preferred to use an interpreter and 14% preferred to have a consultation directly with a signing health professional.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The hospital communication preferences for most people with deafness could be met by increasing deaf awareness training for health professionals, a greater provision of specialized sign language interpreters and of health professionals who can use fluent sign language directly with clients in areas where contact with deaf people is frequent.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. Middletona1@cardiff.ac.uk
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Middleton
authors.forename: Graham H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bitner-Glindzicz
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Angus
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.forename: Dafydd
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stephens
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D003142:Communication; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003638:Deafness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057240:Patient Preference; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult