The NCIEC is pursuing a variety of national initiatives. One initiative is the series of National Needs Assessments being conducted across the US. The National Center has the privilege of serving as lead on the Needs Assessments. One initiative that we are focused on currently is a series of national needs assessments. One of those has been focused on Deaf consumers. We developed on online survey to collect data from Deaf people about how, when, and where they work through interpreters, and about the needs they have for interpreting services in a variety of settings and environments. We were fortunate to have the support of NAD in disseminating that online survey, and we had an impressive return rate, gathering essential data for our needs assessment report.
Impressive as that data was, we recognized that gaps existed in our findings. We had not tapped into the group of Deaf consumers often called “grassroots” Deaf people. We realized that we still needed to gather data from Deaf consumers who have limited or no access to computers in order to participate in an online survey. We also needed to tap into the group of Deaf individuals who did not feel comfortable responding online, due to factors such as English not being their native language, not having access to or being comfortable with using computers to respond to online surveys, etc. We recognized that the online survey approach did not, and could not tap into this group of Deaf consumers and that we were neglecting a rich source of information about the interpreting needs of this large group of Deaf consumers.
Our solution to this need for broader and richer data was to design a second phase of data collection, the Deaf Consumer Phase II needs assessment. The team prepared an interview format to collect the needed information in individual, face-to-face meetings. Although more time- and work- intensive, the resulting perspectives were essential to our work. In order to schedule these interviews, we relied heavily on our sister Centers across the US. In each region, our colleagues identified agencies and resources where the Needs Assessment team could schedule one-on-one interviews with Deaf people from that area. In total, we wanted to recruit 7 Deaf people from two separate areas in each of the Consortium’s 5 regions. With the assistance of our sister regional Centers, we were able to coordinate and arrange all of these visits.
As of March 2009, we have collected data from 3 sites, and have 7 sets of interviews remaining. I have been the person travelling to each site, conducting the interviews for the Needs Assessment team. The interviews were conducted by asking each person the same questions from the original online survey. Once I finished the interviews at each site, I entered the data into the survey form online. Once entered, this data was immediately available to the team for analysis and review.
We anticipate completing the data collection for Phase II by May. We will analyze the data from this phase, and compare the findings to those collected in Phase I. We expect to have the written analysis and report ready for dissemination in late September. The needs assessment findings will be posted on the NCIEC website, and disseminated widely through the efforts of the Consortium. We are excited to compare these newest Phase II findings with those of the Phase I findings.
Keep an eye open for the newest findings in late September, when the results of this exciting 2-part needs assessment of Deaf consumers’ interpreting needs will be available.
NCIEC Needs Assessment Team
- Dennis Cokely, Planning, design, implementation
- Elizabeth Winston, Planning, design, implementation
- Lillian Garcia, translation and interviewer
- Sarah Snow, technical support for online surveys and video data
- Karen Dahms, data analysis and reporting
NCIEC Support and Assistance
- Arroyo Research Services, effective practices design and evaluation assistance
- 5 RIECs: support, design and review input, logistical and technical assistance
translation –BW 4/10/09 |
