Examining the Snags of Access to Covid-19 Information among the Deaf Community in Ghana

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue IV, April 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Examining the Snags of Access to Covid-19 Information among the Deaf Community in Ghana

Issaka Cecilia Alimatu1, Mahama Alhassan2, Fatima Iddrisu Abu3
¹Senior Lecturer, University for Development Studies, Ghana
Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Foundations Studies
²Lecturer, University for Development Studies, Ghana
Faculty of Education, Department of Educational Foundations Studies
³Lecturer, Tamale Technical University, Ghana

Abstract: This study aimed at exploring the Access to Covid-19 Health Information among the Deaf Community in Ghana. The study employed randomly selected 40 Junior High School respondents from the designated deaf schools in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study is an exploratory research with cross-sectional survey as its main design. The instruments for data collection was mainly questionnaire administered manually and through electronic medium (Google forms), interviews and focus group discussions were also conducted over a certain period of time. The data was analysed in SPSS and Pearson Moment Correlation.
Access to information is vital during this pandemic, the study however revealed that there is adequate Covid-19 information available for the deaf, and the major bottleneck is dissemination since there is no universally recognized sign language for Covid-19 information. The affected group has to endure this difficulty which often resulted into infection and even death.
Covid-19 management and aid with fair health care navigation approaches should be provided to the deaf community. The health-care system owes it to deaf patients to assist them in obtaining primary health-care services. To assist communicate health information online, public health professionals should ensure that public service announcements are accessible and widely distributed through deaf community trust agents.
Greater efforts should be made to ameliorate the perceptions of the Covid-19 pandemic that is devouring the world through educational campaigns and information dissemination through various media to a larger deaf population.

Keywords: Covid-19, Deaf, Community, Health, Information, Pandemic, Sign language, Availability, Ghanaian.

I.INTRODUCTION

It is over 100 years since the Spanish flu, recounted as the deadliest outbreak cracked its whip on the world population and economy (WHO, 2018). In 2014, the West African Ebola outbreak also taught the global economy that it is never immune to pandemics and hence the need for prudent national and international health security management systems in anticipation of future outbreaks.
“Outbreaks are a reality of life, and the globe remains susceptible as outbreaks can occur at any time (WHO, 2018, p.10),” said World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in 2018. Though he couldn’t

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