MEASURING SUBSTANCE-ABUSE AMONG THE DEAF

This paper presents results from 2 years' experience in attempting to measure the extent of substance abuse within the deaf community, and p reliminary findings of substance abuse incidence and prevalence from t hat effort. It also describes a new technology, the Interactive Video- Questionnaire, developed to interview deaf persons using questionnaire s in multi-media format that are manually signed on a computer screen in American Sign Language and Signed English, as well as mouthed in Sp eechreading-all of which are simultaneously captioned in English text with Touchscreen(TM) input and automatic data capture. This technology emerged as one product of a Small Business Innovative Research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse designed to overcome the dif ficulties associated with surveying the deaf population and specifical ly targeted at addressing the extent of substance abuse among the deaf populations in New York and New Jersey.