The Deaf and Medicine

[broken tibula]

My school has a J-Term (January Term, a period of four weeks where students do independent projects instead of taking classes) and I want to involve myself in the overlapping area between the Deaf community and the medical community--ranging from Deaf physicians to special treatment facilities for the Deaf, such as the Deaf Addiction Services at the University of Maryland.

My school does not offer any ASL courses, so my skills are very limited, but I would also like to teach myself/learn through immersion over the course of the month.

Are there any particular facilities/hospitals/clinics that I should pay attention to? Any particular aspects I should be looking into? Most of the information I found on the internet is out-of-date (which involved making a lot of phone calls to the "I'm sorry, the number you are trying to reach..." lady). Any advice/anecdotes/referrals you can give me are appreciated!

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[Dr McSexy]

Just so I understand your goals

are you are looking for a facility/hospital/clinic/etc. which you can become involved in that will immerse you into the deaf culture?

Or are you just looking to learn more about deafness (or the management/transition due to hearing loss) or sensorineural deafness or other such topics of hearing loss and deafness?

 

[broken tibula]

I'm looking to become more involved in Deaf culture through hospitals/clinics/etc., yes. I wouldn't mind shadowing a speech pathologist for a while, but the main point is not to learn about Deaf physiology. I'm sorry if that wasn't clear in my initial post.

 

[WeAreNotRobots]

Are there any particular facilities/hospitals/clinics that I should pay attention to?

the first thing that comes to mind is Gallaudet University in DC. even though it's mostly undergrads, i bet they have a health services center specially designed to deal with the DHH community. i dunno if you are anywhere near them, but they might be a good source of information in searching for other clinics/programs or anything else you're interested in.