Guiding principles
Informed choice
Parents have the right to make decisions about what is best for their child and family.
Providing families with evidence based information which is meaningful and accessible, will assist them in making informed decisions about their deaf child and assist their child to achieve their full potential.
Good quality information is the cornerstone of informed choice but does not guarantee understanding. Professionals continue to play a crucial role in supporting parents to understand all the available information and assist families to make those important decisions about raising their deaf child in ways that suit the strengths, values, needs and experience of each family.
Information content
Our aim is to provide evidence based information that can help parents with both the major and day-to-day decisions of raising their deaf child.
We would prefer to use or adapt existing high quality content produced by experts in areas such as audiology, education and mental health. Where existing content is not available, we will research and write our own content. We aim to work in partnership with expert individuals and organisations to bring reliable, evidence-based information to families.
Wherever possible, the information will be presented in plain English. In addition, the information will be provided in three stages of complexity to suit the differing needs of parents – in brief, detailed and references and further reading.
We believe that well-informed parents are able to decide what is right for their children and family, based on their particular circumstances. Where there is evidence for more than one approach to an issue, information will be provided about the different options and their benefits and limitations. Parents will be offered detailed information on how to implement a chosen direction or strategy.
We wish to make the information available on the website accessible for all families, irrespective of their access to a computer and the Internet. All information will be downloadable and professionals will be encouraged to download and print the information for families. This will be an important part of our strategy to ensure that all families have access to the information and we will implement innovative ways of facilitating this outcome.
Community languages
There is limited information on the Internet for families from non-English speaking backgrounds. We aim to assist these families by developing a range of materials in community languages to assist them to make informed decisions about raising for their deaf child.
Parent forums
Parent forums will be an integral part of the web site. While parent forums are primarily to offer parent-to-parent support and information, they can highlight the changing information needs of families. Where information is consistently requested by families in the forums which is not available on the website, we will seek to provide the information.
Evaluation of information
Evaluation of the reliability and accuracy of information will be undertaken by experts in each topic area. This will be an honorary position. Information about the experts and advisors will be provided on the ‘About Us’ pages of the website.
The HONcode (http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html) and DISCERN Instrument (http://www.discern.org.uk/discern_instrument.php) guidelines will inform the evaluation of the quality of the content of the website. While not all information provided will be health-related, the basic principles still apply.
Usability
Usability means the website can be successfully used by a person of average ability and experience for its intended purpose. The goal is for each page to be intuitive and self-evident so that the average user will know what it is and how to use it just by looking at it. Usability testing will be undertaken throughout the design and build process.
Accessibility
Accessibility ensures that people with a disability can successfully use the website. The website will include features to assist parents using screen readers or keyboards to access content.
Partners and sponsors
Information about all partners and sponsors will be provided in the “About Us” section of the new website. Information will include a short description of each supporting organisation and a link to their website. All major sponsors will have their logo on the bottom of the home page. Partners and sponsors may not compromise the integrity of the content on the website.
In accordance with the HONcode guidelines:
Irrespective of any partnership or sponsorship arrangement:
Terminology
The website will use the term ‘deaf’ to mean all types of deafness, and all levels of deafness from mild to profound.