Audiological Health and Linguistic Inclusion in the Framework of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Hearing impairment heavily impacts the communication skills, social involvement and education specially in densely populated areas like Karachi, Pakistan. Therefore, it is essential to promote equitable access to the improved quality of life with hearing loss to ensure sustainable audiological health and linguistic inclusion. This study was aimed to design and establish predicators of sustainable audiological health and linguistic association within Karachi institutional framework. To achieve the objective a quantitative cross-sectional study on chosen 70 professionals was conducted. These professionals were working in the audiological clinics, centers for rehabilitation, special education schools and other disable support organizations. To ensure proper and timely feedback emails and calling via phones were done, the data was collected in the form of structured and self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire included various components like healthcare facilities, facilities of education, facilities of linguistic, technologies, governance and economic sustainability. The assessment of these factors was performed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis. The results depict accessibility of health had mean value of 3.85 ± 0.62; β = 0.31, p < 0.001, while linguistic accessibility and technological infrastructures had significance too. While the governance system highlighted moderate influence and economic sustainability showed non-significance. Accessibility in the private institutions was increased, which highlighted the differences between the public and the private. The results emphasize the significance of having all-inclusive approaches to service provision, language support, and technology. The study concluded that a holistic multi-domain approach is essential for the promotion of sustainable inclusion. Further studies could be conducted to investigate the longitudinal consequences of targeted interventions to formulate proper policy and practice.