Diversidade e comunicação: percepções de surdos sobre atividade de educação em saúde realizada por estudantes de medicina

The deaf community has its own culture and language, unknown to most listeners, which excludes it from  various societal processes. Communication barriers and prejudice hinder access to health services. The  experience of a practical activity of Health Education made with 19 deaf people by 20 students from the  fist year of a medical course was analyzed. After a course in Brazilian Sign Language, students performed  an activity with the deaf, in which they presented lectures on health topics and interacted in actions such as pressure measurement and calculation of the Body Mass Index. Subsequently, the deaf participated in two  focus groups to report their experience. The analysis of the data was given by the Discourse of Collective  Subject. Deaf people were satisfid with the interaction, reported concern about prevention and self-care  and positive expectations regarding the training of humanized and qualifid doctors for their care.