Global Deaf Research Institute (GDRI)
GDRI aims to show the world that international deaf people exist and their voices matter using data and analytics through the lens of research via community needs assessment. The most powerful tool we have against these systems is data. We can use data collection as a stepping stone to effectively advocate for the civil and linguistic rights of the deaf community. The advantages of doing this research are to provide data that will aid the deaf community in advocating for their needs, creating more job opportunities, improving accessibility in places like healthcare, and providing funds through grants and other avenues. This scientific research project will co-produce knowledge with the community and can be presented to stakeholders at multiple levels of decision-making to advocate for policy change and better services to improve deaf people’s quality of life.
The Global Deaf Research Institute is a pioneering, deaf-led research collaborative conducting deaf-specific research to understand the challenges faced by deaf communities around the world. We work closely with local deaf organizations in order to center them in the design and implementation of our systemic barrier research and continue this partnership after publishing to ensure the data is used to affect policy, secure funding, and make concrete positive differences in the daily lives of deaf people.
Project Brief
We believe data is a powerful tool to fight oppression. The first step to supporting efforts to improve deaf quality of life in a country is to deploy systemic barrier research on the social determinants of health for deaf people in the country. GDRI will partner closely with local deaf organizations in order to center their perspective in the deployment of our community needs assessment.
After we have collected and analyzed this data, we will continue to work with our deaf partner organizations to provide policymakers and stakeholders with actionable insights to address the needs of deaf individuals in the country. Through collaborative efforts with policymakers, stakeholders, and community members, we believe that our data-driven advocacy will help catalyze positive change and improve the lives of deaf individuals in the country."
Call to Action
Globally, health research historically overlooks deaf populations. Published data on deaf populations disaggregated from general disability data is almost non-existent, depriving deaf communities worldwide of full access to healthcare, support from their governments, and the ability to thrive as autonomous individuals. Such data are crucial for advocacy efforts, policy changes, and securing funding for local organizations dedicated to addressing the unique challenges faced by deaf individuals.
About the Data
The pilot implementation of Deaf Community Research, conducted in Nigeria in November 2023. The main goal of this research was to refine and implement our quality of life assessment tool, which incorporates the quality of life assessment tool disseminated by the World Health Organization, Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF), with additional tailored questions focusing on barriers and accessibility.
We segmented the country into six regions (Northeast, North, Northwest, Southeast, South, Southwest) and travelled to each of the six, spending a total of 20 days administering the survey to 225 deaf Nigerians, with nearly balanced gender participation of 133 male and 92 female participants, in partnership with the organization Deaf Worlds and Nigeria National Association of the Deaf. Our approach is consultative, inclusive, and participatory in data gathering.
Key Dates
Top 5 volunteers selected
Data
You dont need to use all columns in the dataset, pick a few that you think will allow to tell a story.
Feel free to suggest any improvement in terms of data collection, structure…
Also included the WHOQOL-BREF assessement that Lorne talked about during the call.
It is preferred that only this data is used for the project.
We are welcoming Steve Wexler as mentor
Steve Wexler is the founder of Data Revelations, author of "The Big Picture: How to Use Data Visualization to Make Better Decisions--Faster" and co-author of "The Big Book of Dashboards."
Download Visualisation Survey Data Whitepaper that will help you getting started.
Tools
You can use any tool or software you want: Tableau, PowerBi, R, Python, legos, pen and paper.
Include VFSG logo to your dashboards
In order to promote VSFG and protect your work, can we please ask you to include the VFSG logo on your dashboards (eg bottom footer section is fine). LInks to logos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PAASrdzYzQr47Rlp0yLhR4yuE4FtwJE-?usp=sharing
Support
Use Slack to ask questions #02_project_discussion