In order to collaborate for the communicational accessibility of deaf people, Fiocruz launched the application FioLibras, which provides information about Covid-19 in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Launched in March of this year by the Institute of Scientific and Technological Communication and Information in Health (Icict/Fiocruz), the tool is now available on the application platforms of the IOS and Android systems.
The content was made from a survey carried out through online questionnaires with deaf people who reported their main questions and information needs about Covid-19. From these data, informative videos were produced addressing various topics, such as vaccines, treatments, risk groups, forms of transmission, prevention, diagnosis, testing and mental health. It is also possible to find out more information about the main fake news regarding the disease and the latest scientific research on the subject.
The results of this stage of the research, in which 128 deaf people participated by answering the questionnaire between October and November 2020, showed the need for accessibility tools for this population.
According to Luciana Danielli, project coordinator, 76.6% of the people participating in the research were born deaf or lost their hearing before they could speak. More than 61% people reported having advanced knowledge of Libras, while only 23.4% said they had profound knowledge of the Portuguese language. Most respondents (58.6%) use social networks as the main means of information about Covid-19 and, however, 40.2% consider it “difficult” or “very difficult” to understand the information disclosed in these spaces. In addition, more than 60% said they found many unknown words in the information, which made it difficult the understanding about the Covid-19.
Given this situation, the project also developed a glossary with more than 80 entries in the context of Covid-19, based on materials from the CoVida Network, an initiative of the Center for Integration of Data and Knowledge for Health (Cidacs/Fiocruz) and the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA).
53 unpublished videos in Libras are still part of the app, produced by the project from the content of theQuestions and Answers about Covid-19 section of the Fiocruz Portal. And more than 200 videos with accessibility measures were indexed from the Multimedia database of the Virtual Health Library (BVS). In addition, scientific articles on Covid-19 available at Fiocruz's Institutional Repository Arca were translated into Libras, in partnership with the Sign Language Bioscience Portal Project of the Postgraduate Program in Sciences and Biotechnology – PPBI, at the Federal Fluminense University (UFF), and the visual identity of the application was created by designer Marcelo Cunha Rabello, a worker at Multimeios/Icict, linked to Fiocruz's Employability of Deaf People project.
“Communication and information are fundamental human rights for the human right to health. In addition, they are part of public health policies and are central to the Unified Health System (SUS). It is essential to provide access to information on health that is adequate to the reality of society and in accordance with the plurality of the population. The implementation of accessibility measures is urgent in health communication processes and guarantees the right to information of people with disabilities”, comments Luciana, who is coordinator of the Center for Information and Technology in Health (CTIC/Icict/Fiocruz).
The application FioLibras was developed by the Icict Accessibility Working Group and financed by the Inova Covid-19 Program – Quick Responses. The group has been working at the unit since 2015, collaborating to strengthen the construction of accessible practices in health communication and information and developing a series of training actions, such as seminars, courses and publications, including the Accessibility and Inclusion Guide for Communication Professionals and the course titled “Accessibility and the principles of SUS: basic training for health workers”.
The app is available on IOS and PlayStore stores.
Source: Icict/Fiocruz portal.
