DITE (Deaf In Touch Everywhere) — Monash Malaysia's Co-Designed Remote Sign-Language Interpreting App for Healthcare

DITE (Deaf In Touch Everywhere) is a mobile health app developed by a Monash University Malaysia team together with the Deaf community and Malaysian Sign Language (BIM) interpreters. It links Deaf patients with a pool of off-site interpreters through secure video conferencing to reduce communication barriers in healthcare.
The design process was community-based. A 2021 study in mHealth ran two focus groups in BIM (10 Deaf or hard-of-hearing adults) at the Malaysian Federation of the Deaf: 7 of 10 reported difficulty communicating with pharmacists, most preferred video with subtitles over text because not all Deaf people are literate, and participants raised data-privacy concerns.
A 2024 study in Digital Health (Chong et al.) tested the app with 18 Deaf users and BIM interpreters over two weeks, using an adapted UTAUT questionnaire and focus groups. Ratings for performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions and behavioural intention were high in both groups, and participants offered design improvements.
Limits: the sample is small, the study is a feasibility test of measurement and acceptability rather than a health-outcome evaluation, and two authors hold a patent/trademark for DITE. A funded follow-on project (2025–2029) will co-design DITE-2, add a Medical SignBank and assess feasibility of a randomised trial, including applicability in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Read the full analysis: https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/the-design-of-the-deaf-in-touch-everywhere-ditesuptmsup-mobile-ap/