People with disabilities have significant health disparities and face barriers to accessing quality health care. Deaf patients are especially underserved and marginalized in health care settings. First, communication barriers with health care providers lead to fear, mistrust, and frustration among Deaf patients as well as to misunderstandings about their diagnosis and treatment. Poor communication was associated with lower satisfaction with health care quality and access and more preventative adverse events in acute care settings. Second, Deaf patients often have a limited knowledge of health information. Patients who were born Deaf or lost hearing prelingually had no access to incidentally occurring health information from family members, radio, television, or public health service campaigns. Unlike their hearing siblings, they often have no information about their family health history. Finally, Deaf patients with other minoritized identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender identity, LGBTQAI, etc.) are at a higher risk of marginalization and health risks. With meaningful training, health care providers can become more competent and comfortable providing quality health care to Deaf patients.
Disclaimer:
“A medical practitioner, health care institution, or health care payer has the freedom to decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service which violates the practitioner’s, institution’s, or payer’s conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or principles held by the practitioner, institution, or payer.” Law signed on July 1, 2021 and made effective on September 30, 2021.