Access and comprehension of information by profound deaf youngsters in Brazil

The deaf community is less well informed compared to hearing groups and this communication difficulty hampers not only the acquisition of accurate general information but also puts the deaf community at a health risk. When profound deaf students were asked about their sources of information, a younger group mentioned friends and family, and an older group answered newspapers, television, and internet as their first sources of information. However, when this second group, aged between 17-36 years old, were evaluated in relation to their capacity of reading and understanding a short piece of news it became clear in many occasions that they ignored the meaning of more than 30% of the words. This older group of students could, however, discuss certain issues that had been extensively covered by the different media. This limited access to accurate information is a problem in issues involving sexual topics. Using the school system to cover this gap, it became clear that there was a lack of knowledge related to anatomy and basic physiologic concepts, as well as sexually transmitted diseases. The questions of virginity, homosexuality, pregnancy and drug abuse were also important discussion points. The need to overcome some of these problems led to the production of DVDs and illustrated magazines with the help of the young deaf community. The deaf community deserves being better informed and different approaches should be considered to overcome this problem. Key words: Information, young deaf community, sources of information, communication.