The role of Faculty of Medicine in Rijeka in developing and promoting deaf culture: a few old experiences and a promising recent initiative with deaf education

Abstract

Starting from the tradition of research and rehabilitation of hearing and speech disorders
in Croatia (SUVAG, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences of the University of
Zagreb), this article goes on to focus on recent initiatives aiming improving the education of
deaf people at the Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities of the Faculty of
Medicine of the University of Rijeka.
The first traces of interest in deaf people at the Faculty of Medicine date back to the academic
year 2002/2003, when Ivan Segota (1938-2011) started an elective course entitled How to
Communicate with Deaf Patients. A round-table discussion Bioethical Aspects in Communication
with Deaf Patients was organized in 2006, and 2007 saw the start of a scientific project with
the financial support of the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports. In 2010, the
textbook The Deaf and Medical Sign Language was published. At the same time, the authorities at the Rijeka Faculty of Medicine became aware of the
long-term importance and necessity of transforming the faculty under the slogan “Faculty of
Medicine of the University of Rijeka – Friend of the Deaf”. Collaboration has started with
the American Rochester Institute of Technology, and the foundation of the National Center for
the Higher Education of the Deaf and Hearing Impaired of the Republic of Croatia has been
initiated.