Medisign

Members of the Deaf community may have poor understanding
of their health and common diseases, due to difficulties with command and usage of English and lack of accessibility to healthcare knowledge, from limited deaf-friendly resources in hospitals to poor understanding of Deaf culture by healthcare professionals. This leads to poor compliance to medications, and thus poorer health outcomes in Deaf patients. MediSign aims to bridge this gap. Our programmes target improving medical students' understanding and appreciation of the Deaf community through subsidised Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) classes as well as improving the Deaf community's access to healthcare information through workshops conducted to explain common conditions to them.

MediSign volunteers have the opportunity to learn Singapore Sign
Language (SgSL), conducted by Singapore Association for the Deaf
(SADeaf), with the course being specially tailored for medical
students, including history taking in SgSL and specific medical vocabulary in the curriculum.

Since its conception, Medisign has conducted workshops on diabetes, hypertension, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and more. These workshops have been well received by the Deaf Community! We hope to be able to continue to make healthcare education more accessible, and inspire our volunteers to step up and serve the Deaf Community further.