Ethical issues in conducting research with deaf populations

Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users represent a small population at risk for marginalization from research and surveillance activities resulting from cultural, language, and ethical challenges. The Deaf community's view of deafness as a cultural identity, rather than a disability, contradicts the medical community's perception of deafness as a disease or deficiency in need of correction or elimination. These differences continue to have significant cultural and social implications within the Deaf community, resulting in mistrust of research opportunities. Two particularly contentious ethical topics for the Deaf community are the absence of community representation in genetic research and the lack of accessible informed consents and research materials. This article outlines a series of innovative strategies and solutions to these issues, including the importance of community representation and collaboration with researchers studying deaf populations.