Designing a curriculum on Internet health resources for deaf high school students

Purpose: This paper examines the integration of instruction about quality health resources on the Internet into the health curriculum of a specialized high school for students with hearing disabilities. Setting/Participants/Resources: The Health Sciences Library System (HSLS) at the University of Pittsburgh has formed a partnership with the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf (WPSD). Brief Description: This project was partially funded through a subcontract with the National Library of Medicine. As one component of its Health Information for the Public project, HSLS formed a partnership with the WPSD. This partnership allowed for a librarian to provide instruction to health education and learning center teachers and students at WPSD about health resources on the Internet. This paper describes the planning process, curriculum development, and challenges encountered. These challenges include student knowledge of English as a second language, the need for a sign language interpreter, students' third-to-fourth-grade reading levels, and the need for appropriate visual presentations to accompany the audio counterpart. Results/Outcome: The partnership formed between HSLS and WPSD improved deaf high school students' ability to locate quality health information on the Internet. Evaluation Method: A pre-class survey and post-class survey were used to determine the impact of the instruction.