The Interactive Video-Questionnaire: a new technology for interviewing deaf persons

This paper traces the development of a new technology, the Interactive Video-Questionnaire, for interviewing Deaf persons by using manually signed questionnaires. After encountering numerous obstacles to conducting surveys with Deaf persons about substance abuse using the same methods typically used with hearing persons, the researchers, with a Small Business Innovative Research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, piloted a survey method that uses videodisc and bar code readers to present survey questions signed on screen in American Sign Language and Signed English. Following consultations with Deaf participants, deficiencies of this method were identified and corrected. An interactive multimedia program was created in Phase II of this research effort that offered questions visually in American Sign Language, Signed English, or Speechreading. All questions were subtitled in written English, with Touchscreen entry and automatic data capture and storage. The potential exists for many important uses of the Interactive Video-Questionnaire.