Leveraging Technology to Reduce Literacy Barriers on Social Health Screening Tools: An Interview with Dr. Kaprea Johnson and Dr. Dana Brookover
Author: Jimmy A. Young, PhD
In this month’s episode I interview Dr. Kaprea Johnson and Dr. Dana Brookover about their article “Leveraging Technology to Reduce Literacy Barriers on Social Health Screening Tools: Implications for Human Service Professionals and Administrators,” which was published in the Journal of Technology in Human Services earlier in 2021. Dr. Johnson is a tenured full Professor at the Ohio State University in the Department of Educational Studies. Her interests are broadly situated in interrogating education and healthcare systems as it relates to addressing social determinants of health needs, equity, access, and justice. Dr. Johnson has held positions at Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and has received over $5 million in grant funded projects. Dr. Dana Brookover is currently an assistant professor at the University of Scranton in the Department of Counseling & Human Services. She was formerly a licensed professional school counselor in Virginia and received her PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2020. Her research interests include social determinants of health and equitable college and career readiness.
I have to admit I was very excited to connect with them because of our shared experience of Virginia Commonwealth University, where I completed my doctoral studies. We talked about how they used Universal Design Learning (UDL) principles to develop an electronic screen tool that employed photos and animations to help individuals understand the questions on a specific screening tool and make it more accessible everyone. I was surprised to learn that some of the pictures were normal photographs but that they also used hand drawn pictures as well. Dr. Johnson explained how any organization that wanted to utilize photographs in their screening tools can actually find freely available pictures via Google and some other websites. These tools were presented using iPads or tablets and I think it presents a great avenue to interface with electronic health records and workflow within agencies or community based clinics. We talked about some ideas for getting started with health screening tools, collaborations with colleges and universities, as well as with artists and other resources within a community. They also reminded me about the flexibility of these types of tools in that they can also still be printed out on paper if needed and how technology can help with decision making. Overall, I fully appreciated this discussion and thinking through how organizations and agencies can leverage technology in innovative ways.
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Links of Interest:
Dr. Kaprea Johnson on Twitter @DrKaprea
Dr. Dana Brookover on Twitter @BrookoverDana
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APA (7th Ed) citation for this podcast:
Young, J. A. (Producer). (2021, November 5). #12 – Leveraging Technology to Reduce Literacy Barriers on Social Health Screening Tools: An Interview with Dr. Kaprea Johnson & Dr. Dana Brookover. [Audio Podcast]. husITa Podcast. Retrieved from https://husita.podbean.com/e/leveraging-technology-to-reduce-literacy-barriers-on-social-health-screening-tools-an-interview-with-dr-kaprea-johnson-and-dr-dana-brookover/