Developing inclusive health programs and digital literacy in Southeast Asia

Research at RMIT Vietnam is helping to improve access to health services and boost digital literacy for people living with a disability in Vietnam and Indonesia.

SDGs

Vietnam Indonesia accessibility people with a disability digital literacy COVID-19 vaccinations

Led by Dr Abdul Rohman, the team has focused on the rights and wellbeing of people with a disability for several years. Rohman’s work covers the socio-technical impact of information communication technologies, social movements, and historically marginalised groups in Southeast Asia.

Key points

RMIT research in Southeast Asia is influencing policy and improving access to vital healthcare information, including the benefits and safety of vaccines.
The research team gained extensive insights from people with a disability about their specific needs for accessing information technology and healthcare.
Collaborating with government, non-government organisations and local communities across Vietnam and Indonesia, recommendations to improve digital information access were developed via policy dialogues held in major provinces.
The collaborative research work is continuing to grow and influence the Vietnamese and Indonesian governments to provide better and more equitable health information and digital access across the region.
A successful program to “train-the trainer” in Vietnam is empowering local community members to boost digital literacy skills in their own communities.

Improving access to vaccination information during COVID-19 pandemic

The onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic highlighted an urgent need to develop more inclusive responses to critical health issues in Southeast Asia.

The World Health Organisation classified people with a disability as one of the most vulnerable populations affected by the pandemic, yet Dr Rohman said that in Southeast Asia, specific vaccination guidelines for people with a disability were scarce.

As a result, vaccine hesitancy and uptake remain key issues.

“Those with a disability in our communities encountered numerous obstacles to obtaining COVID-19 vaccinations, from gathering information, to registering for their vaccinations and navigating vaccination sites,” he said.

Information needs to be accessible for people with a range of disabilities including deafness and hearing or visual impairment and cognitive disability.

“Although many people wanted to be vaccinated, they were unclear about which vaccine was safe and effective for them, or which accessibility features were present at vaccination sites,” he said.

The RMIT research team suggested ways to design an equitable vaccination program, including presenting vaccine-related information in an accessible format for people with a range of disabilities and disseminating it through multiple channels online and/or in-person settings with sign language interpreters.

A clear policy brief was developed to help policy makers, mainstream communication agencies, relevant organisations and stakeholders to develop equitable communication policies and programs that are accessible to all people with disabilities. It was circulated to more than 30 organisations of people with disabilities in Vietnam and discussed with a range of stakeholders in Ha Nam and Da Nang.

Information hubs set up in local communities during the pandemic

The team partnered with experts from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and Department of Medical Service Administration in Hanoi to run four online information sessions that reached over 300 people with disabilities across Vietnam from October 2021 – January 2022. The sessions gave people with disabilities in non-urban areas a rare opportunity to speak with medical and vaccine experts at times when vaccine-related information was urgently needed.

The team targeted smaller regional communities in both Vietnam and Indonesia that lacked accessible information and set up information hubs about the pandemic and vaccines.

Rohman said the hubs represented the first ever sources of reliable and accessible information about health matters for members of the communities in non-urban areas during the peak of the pandemic.

“We invited doctors from the Department of Health, and interpreters and sign language interpreters to translate what they were saying,” said Rohman.

“The hubs also became a space where people could share their concerns and experiences,” he said.

The people involved in running the hubs have since used the lessons learned from the project to advocate for inclusive access to healthcare in Vietnam.

Understanding how people with a disability use digital technologies

Another research project investigated how people with disabilities use digital technologies, and how to increase their access to healthcare technologies and services.

Insights about issues with technology were gained from in-depth interviews with leaders of the Organisation of People with Disabilities (OPD) from across Vietnam. Focus group discussions were also held and attended by people with a disability in 23 Vietnamese provinces.

Improving access to healthcare via tech-based solutions

The research team then collaborated with key government and other organisations to convene policy dialogues in Ha Nam and Da Nang. These sessions aimed to identify tech-based solutions for supporting people to access healthcare and improve their quality of life.

Representatives from key government and other organisations attending the policy dialogue with the research team in Da Nang City.

Representatives from Vietnam’s Ministry of Health, Communication, and Information; the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA); and member organisations affiliated with local OPDs attended.

Issues discussed included a shortage of digital devices, insufficient financial support for tech training, limited accessible communication formats for different types of disabilities, and incompatibility between screen readers and applications.

Potential solutions suggested by the representatives included:

Establishing a community digital technology team to help effectively and safely use technology.
Creating a dedicated database, listing disability-accessible facilities including hotels, hospitals, and restaurants
Integrating hospital software with disability-friendly devices and applications to facilitate effective communication between doctors and patients with disabilities.
Encouraging healthcare facilities to explore and implement virtual assistants to provide automatic information responses, convert speech to text, and vice versa, to improve accessibility for those seeking healthcare information.
Seeking support for smartphone devices for people with a disability from social assistance programs and sources.

Outcomes and impacts

After receiving the recommendations stemming from the policy dialogues, the People’s Committee of Da Nang City took immediate action to address the concerns raised by the community.

Relevant local government departments were encouraged to support implementation of the recommendations, with the help and oversight of the People's Committee of Da Nang City.

Rohman said it was rewarding to see tangible steps being taken to increase access to digital technology and healthcare information.

“We work closely with local organisations that are led by people with disabilities across Vietnam, which is key to the program’s success,” he said.

We’re really pleased that these open policy discussions are fostering an environment where the voices of people with a disability are being heard and acted upon to create positive change.

The Ha NAM OPD is also working to collaborate with their Province’s relevant departments to implement the changes.

Boosting digital literacy in Vietnam

The research team developed a highly successful “train-the-trainer” program to improve digital literacy and protect information privacy among people with a disability in Vietnam.

In the initial program, fifteen people who use sign language and identify as being deaf or hard of hearing were trained to teach others digital skills and online privacy protection tips.

To date, the flow-on training sessions given by the trainers have been held across six cities with over five hundred people participating.

Online privacy skills training was organised and attended by people with disabilities in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Next steps

Further policy dialogue sessions are scheduled for Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi, and Makassar (Indonesia). More digital literacy training programs for people who are deaf or hard of hearing will also be run in Ho Chi Minh City and the neighbouring cities in South Vietnam, following calls for better access to information that includes sign language interpretation.

Funding support

The research to improve vaccine related information and create hybrid information hubs for people with disabilities in Vietnam and Indonesia was funded by the Vaccine Confidence Fund. The equal access to digital platforms for people with disabilities during the pandemic project was supported by the US Social Science Research Council. The digital literacy project was supported by Traveloka.

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