Tottori University makes sign language mandatory for medical students to train doctors who support Deaf patients

Tottori University's medical school has made sign language a required course since 2008, the only medical school in Japan to do so, with more than 1,000 students taught. Deaf instructor Shinichi Toba of the Tottori Association of the Deaf teaches students about Deaf history and real problems Deaf patients face in hospitals, such as doctors speaking only to interpreters. Faculty hope graduates will build hospital cultures that respect Deaf patients.