SBIR-STTR Award

The proposed project will utilize qualitative (theatre testing) and quantitative data (pre and post tests) to develop a prototype of a computer-based HIV curriculum in American Sign Language to meet the cultural, linguistic and specific learning needs of deaf high school students. Adolescents and young adults are at high and continuing risk of HIV infection. Deaf youth are at particular risk due to lack of access to HIV information commonly available to their hearing age peers. This is, in part, due to their generally low reading levels. Deaf youth are also at increased HIV risk due to their sexual risk behaviors, cultural norms, and inadequate school-based HIV prevention programs. Results from an HIV knowledge and risk behavior survey of over 700 deaf students who attend 15 deaf high schools throughout the US recently conducted by our research team, indicate that students at deaf high schools have low levels of HIV knowledge and engage in high-risk sexual behaviors. Learning style and cultural differences as well as linguistic differences (use of American Sign Language) make it necessary to adapt curricula for this group of students. Currently there are no HIV prevention curricula available that meet the specific learning and language needs of deaf high school students. The prototype curriculum will be adapted from an evidence-based HIV curriculum for youth. It will enhance knowledge about HIV transmission, and develop negotiation skills and decision making strategies for risk reduction among deaf high school students. The prototype will be field tested in classes at high schools for deaf students. Preliminary effectiveness of the prototype will be assessed through pre and post tests of student knowledge, skills and attitudes, and assessment of acceptability. The feasibility and acceptability of creating a full-scale computer-based HIV curriculum in American Sign Language will be assessed though analysis results of qualitative and quantitative measures collected during field testing. Such an HIV curriculum will meet the specific learning needs of deaf students. In doing so, it will also meet the needs of teachers of deaf students for a curriculum culturally and linguistically targeted to their students. , ,

Public Health Relevance:
HIV infection is a continuing problem for youth and adolescents;deaf youth are at particular risk due to their low HIV knowledge, high risk behaviors and lack of appropriate HIV curricula which meet their specific learning, cultural and linguistic needs. The proposed project will develop a prototype of a computer-based HIV curriculum in American Sign Language, adapted from an evidence-based HIV curriculum for youth, to meet the needs of deaf students. When fully developed, this curriculum will enhance knowledge about HIV transmission, and develop negotiation skills and decision making strategies for risk reduction among deaf high school students.

Thesaurus Terms:

The proposed Web-based ASL HIV/STI Prevention Curriculum for deaf adolescents will enable a reduction in HIV/STI risk in a vulnerable group by adapting an evidence-based HIV prevention intervention, key components of which are communication, negotiation, and decision making skills that are also applicable to other health and mental health areas. This proposal is responsive to the NIMH DAR 2014 SBIR Areas of Emphasis: develop innovative tools and training approaches designed to improve the quality and delivery of HIV prevention curricula by counselors, or educators and develop novel information technology tools designed to improve dissemination and implementation of evidence-based HIV/AIDS behavioral risk reduction interventions. To date, no evidence-based HIV prevention interventions have been adapted for the "blended" use of web-based delivery for any adolescent population. While HIV prevention efforts appear to be slowing the spread of HIV among targeted groups of adults in the US, it is of growing concern that adolescents ages 13-17 and young adult males ages 18-25 continue to be at high risk of contracting HIV. Because the proposed curriculum utilizes web-based, enhanced explanatory visuals and storytelling to communicate complex social situations and scientific concepts, its applicability extends to other hard-to-reach adolescent sub-populations such as other ethnic/minority groups and new immigrants. Currently, there is no HIV/STI curriculum available that meets the cultural and linguistic needs of deaf high school students. Deaf youth are at heightened HIV risk due to sexual risk behaviors, deaf cultural norms, inadequate school-based HIV prevention programs, and lack of access to HIV information. Deaf high school students have low levels of HIV knowledge and engage in high risk sexual risk behaviors. We propose to complete the adaptation of an evidenced- based HIV/STI prevention curriculum which will meet the needs deaf youth. An evidence-based HIV prevention curriculum, originally designed for a general hearing adolescent population will be adapted in two ways to: 1) make it culturally and linguistically appropriate for deaf youth and 2) put portions of the curriculum on the web in order to allow for "blended" classroom learning. These are innovative uses of technology which are being combined in a new way to enhance the effectiveness of HIV/STI prevention for adolescents. The proposed curriculum in ASL is designed to increase communication, and negotiation, and decision making skills, and to increase HIV/STI knowledge. Effectiveness will be evaluated in high schools for the deaf using a quasi-experimental design in which classes of students receiving the new curriculum will be evaluated against randomly assigned classes in a comparison group. The market for this product includes all high schools for deaf students and mainstream high school programs in the US as well as vocational, recreational, substance abuse, and rehabilitation programs which serve deaf youth.

Public Health Relevance Statement:


Public Health Relevance:
Deaf adolescents are at risk for acquiring HIV and STIs. Currently there are no school-based HIV/STI prevention materials available that are deaf specific. This proposal will develop a web-based, blended learning HIV/STI prevention curriculum that includes communication/negotiation skills for use in high schools where deaf students are educated.

NIH Spending Category:
Adolescent Sexual Activity; Behavioral and Social Science; Clinical Research; Clinical Trials and Supportive Activities; Comparative Effectiveness Research; HIV/AIDS; Infectious Diseases; Mental Health; Pediatric; Pediatric AIDS; Prevention; Sexually Transmitted Diseases/Herpes

Project Terms:
Adolescent; Adult; Age; age group; aged; AIDS prevention; AIDS/HIV problem; Area; Attitude; base; Behavioral; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.); Communication; comparison group; Complex; condoms; Consultations; Contracts; cost; Decision Making; design; digital; Educational Curriculum; Educational process of instructing; Effectiveness; ethnic minority population; evidence base; Evidence based intervention; Experimental Designs; Health; Health education; Hearing; Hearing Impaired Persons; high risk; high school; High School Student; HIV; HIV Infections; HIV risk; HIV/STD; Immigrant; Imprisonment; improved; Infection; Information Technology; innovation; Internet; Intervention; Knowledge; Learning; Learning Disabilities; Linguistics; Mainstreaming (Education); male; Marketing; Mediation; Medical; meetings; Mental Health; Minority Groups; Modeling; National Institute of Mental Health (U.S.); Native Americans; novel; Online Systems; Phase; phase 1 study; Population; Pre-Post Tests; Prevention; Prevention program; Preventive Intervention; Productivity; Professional counselor; programs; public health relevance; Randomized; Rehabilitation therapy; Research; Risk; Risk Behaviors; Risk Reduction; Safe Sex; Schools; Science; sex risk; Sign Language; skills; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; social situation; Students; Substance abuse problem; Surveys; Target Populations; Technology; Teenagers; Testing; tool; Training; Visual; Voice; Vulnerable Populations; young adult; Youth