Best Practices for Collaborating with Deaf Communities in Developing Countries

This chapter highlights aspects of best practices of researchers and organizations when collaborating with deaf communities (such as in Brazil) to nurture them in achieving independence and enhanced quality of life. The authors’ joint study aimed to discover how outside funding institutions can aid the economic development of Kenyan deaf communities from the point of view of those communities. Community members identified problems of corruption and cultural misunderstandings, resulting in misuse of funding. They recommended community planning, management, and evaluation of projects, and that...

This chapter highlights aspects of best practices of researchers and organizations when collaborating with deaf communities (such as in Brazil) to nurture them in achieving independence and enhanced quality of life. The authors’ joint study aimed to discover how outside funding institutions can aid the economic development of Kenyan deaf communities from the point of view of those communities. Community members identified problems of corruption and cultural misunderstandings, resulting in misuse of funding. They recommended community planning, management, and evaluation of projects, and that money from institutions go directly to communities, not via brokers, and deaf Kenyans be trained and thus empowered to make their own changes.