The videos are silent, but the messages are loud and clear.

In one, a woman comforts a friend who just found a lump in her breast and tells her that most lumps are not cancerous. In another, a woman eating dinner with friends explains that she didn’t order dessert because she has diabetes. Then the friends discuss how diabetes affects the body. The videos, in American Sign Language (ASL), are part of Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center’s commitment to communicating with people in their own language.

"Sign language is a visual language," says Toby Perlman, Ph.D., manager of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program at Illinois Masonic Medical Center. "It is not a word-for-gesture equivalent to English. In fact, the average pre-lingually deaf adult achieves only a fourth-grade reading level in English."

Illinois Masonic Medical Center recognized the need to increase the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community’s access to important, but sensitive, health information and that written English text wouldn’t work. So the hospital used streaming video technology to provide information in ASL.

Illinois Masonic Medical Center produced videos about HIV/AIDS, breast health, sexually transmitted diseases and diabetes and posted them on its website, so people could view them privately and at their convenience. The website also includes health screenings for anxiety, depression and heart disease—all translated into ASL—so deaf and heard of hearing people have access to preventive health tools.

Providing health information in American Sign Language, along with multiple other languages—that’s an impact everyone can understand.