Communicating with deaf client at your service agency

You work at an agency that helps people access healthcare and prescription drugs. Now a new client walks in who is deaf. How do you communicate with your deaf client? And how do you ensure they receive the same needed services as others? This toolkit guides counselors and professionals. It explains different ways that deaf people communicate during a conversation. Meanwhile, it describes how deaf people use the phone, and how this helps you communicate. The toolkit also explains U.S. law protecting the rights of deaf clients.

The Make Medicare Work Coalition published this toolkit in 2012. Some of its advice is useful for communicating with deaf clients in any country. For example, deaf people in every country communicate in many different ways. Thus, strategies that work well with one deaf person might not work for another. But some of its advice is only useful in the United States. You will want to contact local deaf organizations in your country for more guidance. For example, your country will have different laws. It might also have different phone technology for deaf people.

This PDF file is partly accessible for people using screen reading software. But they may have some difficulty. For example, the file does not use bookmarks or say its natural language.

Also explore other resources for communicating with deaf clients or patients.