Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T16:14:42.576Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘My eyes are my ears’: Deaf people appropriating AIDS education messages in Uganda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2022

Ambrose Murangira
Ambrose Murangira*
Affiliation:
College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
*
Email: murangiraa@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Ugandan effort to provide AIDS education for the entire population raised questions about how to reach people with disabilities. Based on semi-structured interviews and participant observation with Deaf people in Kampala, this study examined how communication technologies are used in general by Deaf people, and what is specific to communicating about HIV and AIDS. It found that communication technologies, whose purpose is to mediate information, are themselves mediated by social relations. Two contrasts are apparent: between types of technology and types of relationships. The ‘old’ technologies – broadcast and print – often depend on mediation by hearing people, who create the messages and explain audio information to Deaf associates. The ‘new’ digital technologies in the form of smartphones allow Deaf people to communicate directly with one another and facilitate new forms of Deaf sociality, both online and in person. They convey information about AIDS prevention directly, obviating the need to discuss sex with family members of the parental generation, which is culturally sensitive. Smartphones are highly appreciated by Deaf people but the costs of obtaining and using them exclude many.

Résumé

Résumé

L’action d’éducation de la population ougandaise sur le SIDA a soulevé des questions sur la manière de toucher les personnes en situation de handicap. Basée sur des entretiens semi-structurés et des observations participantes avec des sourds à Kampala, cette étude a examiné comment les technologies de communication sont utilisées en général par les sourds, et ce qui est spécifique à la communication sur le VIH et le SIDA. Elle a constaté que les technologies de communication, dont le but est de médier l’information, sont elles-mêmes médiées par les relations sociales. Deux contrastes sont apparents : entre les types de technologie et les types de relations. Les « vieilles » technologies (radiodiffusion et impression) dépendent souvent d’une médiation assurée par des personnes entendantes qui créent les messages et expliquent l’information audio à des personnes sourdes. Les « nouvelles » technologies numériques sous la forme de smartphones permettent aux personnes sourdes de communiquer directement entre elles et facilitent de nouvelles formes de socialité des sourds, à la fois en ligne et en personne. Elles transmettent l’information sur la prévention du SIDA, en évitant d’avoir à parler de sexe avec des membres de la famille appartenant à la génération parentale, culturellement sensible. Les smartphones sont très appréciés par les personnes sourdes mais les coûts d’acquisition et d’utilisation de ces appareils en excluent beaucoup.

Type
Disability and technology
Information
Africa , Volume 92 , Issue 4 , August 2022 , pp. 467 - 483
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Airhihenbuwa, C. O. and Obregon, R. (2000) ‘A critical assessment of theories/models used in health communication for HIV/AIDS’, Journal of Health Communication 5 (S): 5–15.Google ScholarPubMed
Amit, V. (ed.) (2015) Thinking through Sociality: an anthropological interrogation of key concepts. New York NY: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Archambault, J. S. (2012) ‘“Travelling while sitting down”: mobile phones, mobility and the communication landscape in Inhambane, Mozambique’, Africa 82 (3): 393–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckmann, G. (2022) ‘Sign language as a technology: existential and instrumental perspectives of Ugandan Sign Language’, Africa 92 (4): 430–48.Google Scholar
Brisset-Foucault, F. (2013) ‘A citizenship of distinction in the open radio debates of Kampala’, Africa 83 (2): 227–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bushaija, E., Sunday, F., Asingizwe, D., Olayo, R. and Abong’o, B. (2013) ‘Factors that hinder parents from the communicating of sexual matters with adolescents in Rwanda’, Rwanda Journal of Health Sciences 2: 13–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, J., Howard, S., Vetere, F., Peck, J. and Murphy, J. (2001) ‘Identity, power and fragmentation in cyberspace: technology appropriation by young persons’. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Twelfth Australian Conference on Information Systems, Coffs Harbour, Australia.Google Scholar
Englund, H. (2015) ‘Forget the poor: radio kinship and exploited labor in Zambia’, Current Anthropology 56: S137–S145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedner, M. (2010) ‘Biopower, biosociality, and community formation: how biopower is constitutive of the deaf community’, Sign Language Studies 10 (3): 336–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedner, M. (2014) ‘The church of deaf sociality: deaf churchgoing practices and “sign bread and butter” in Bangalore, India’, Anthropology and Education Quarterly 45 (1): 39–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedner, M. (2015) Valuing Deaf Worlds in Urban India. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goss, B. (2003) ‘Hearing from the Deaf culture’, Intercultural Communication Studies 12 (2): 9–24.Google Scholar
Ilkbaşaran, D. (2015) ‘Social media practices of Deaf youth in Turkey: emerging mobilities and language choice’ in Friedner, M. and Kusters, A. (eds), It’s a Small World: international deaf spaces and encounters. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Jallu, A. S. et al. (2019) ‘Prelingual deafness: an overview of treatment outcome’, Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery 71 (S2): 1078–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, J. and McIntosh, A. S. (2009) ‘Toward a cultural perspective and understanding of the disability and deaf experience in special and multicultural education’, Remedial and Special Education 30: 67–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kusters, A. (2014) ‘Deaf sociality and the deaf Lutheran church in Adamorobe, Ghana’, Sign Language Studies 14 (4): 466–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lutalo-Kiingi, S. and De Clerck, G. A. M. (2015) ‘Deaf citizenship and sign language diversity in sub-Saharan Africa: promoting partnership between sign language communities, academia, and NGOs in development in Uganda and Cameroon’ in Cooper, A. C. and Rashid, K. K. (eds), Citizenship, Politics, Difference: perspectives from sub-Saharan signed language communities. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, D. et al. (2021) The Global Smartphone: beyond a youth technology. London: UCL Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R. E. (2005) ‘How many deaf people are there in the United States? Estimates from the survey of income and program participation’, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 11: 1–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muyinda, H. (2004) ‘Community sex education among adolescents in rural Uganda: utilizing indigenous institutions’, AIDS Care 16 (1): 69–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Muyinda, H. et al. (2001) ‘Traditional sex counselling and STI/HIV prevention among young women in rural Uganda’, Culture, Health and Sexuality 3 (3): 353–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muyinda, H. et al. (2003) ‘Harnessing the senga institution of adolescent sex education for the control of HIV and STDs in rural Uganda’, AIDS Care 15 (2): 159–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nambambi, N. M. and Mufune, P. (2011) ‘What is talked about when parents discuss sex with children: family-based sex education in Windhoek, Namibia’, African Journal of Reproductive Health 15 (4): 120–9.Google ScholarPubMed
Nobelius, A.-M. et al. (2010) ‘Sexual and reproductive health information sources preferred by out-of-school adolescents in rural southwest Uganda’, Sex Education 10 (1): 91–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrove, J. and Oliva, G. (2010) ‘Identifying allies: explorations of deaf–hearing relationships’ in Burch, S. and Kafer, A. (eds), Deaf and Disability Studies: interdisciplinary perspectives. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press.Google Scholar
Rabinow, P. (1996) Essays on the Anthropology of Reason. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rogers, T. (1998) ‘Access to information on computer networks by the Deaf’, Communication Review 2 (4): 497–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schulz, D. E. (1999) ‘“In pursuit of publicity”: talk radio and the imagination of a moral public in urban Mali’, Africa Spectrum 34 (2): 161–85.Google Scholar
Soola, E. O. (1991) ‘Communication and education as vaccine against the spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Africa’, Africa Media Review 5 (3): 33–40.Google ScholarPubMed
Tamale, S. (2006) ‘Eroticism, sensuality and “women’s secrets” among the Baganda’, IDS Bulletin 37 (5).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trowler, P. and Turner, G. H. (2002) ‘Exploring the hermeneutic foundations of university life: deaf academics in a hybrid community of practice’, Higher Education 43: 227–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, K., Rohan, M. J. and Campbell, L. (2007) ‘Equitable representation of deaf people in mainstream academia: why not?’, Higher Education 53: 359–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar