Empowerment in hearing rehabilitation: translation of self-advocacy checklists.

PURPOSE:To translate and cross-culturally adapt to Brazilian Portuguese four instruments for assessing self-advocacy skills of users of electronic hearing devices: the "I can" Self-Advocacy Checklist and three versions of the Audiology Self-Advocacy Checklist (ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, MIDDLE SCHOOL and HIGH SCHOOL). METHODS:The translation process was adapted from the guidelines of Beaton et al. (2000). The prefinal version was pre-tested in two groups. Group 1 (G1) was composed of 14 teachers of adolescents with hearing loss. Group 2 (G2) was composed of 15 adolescent patients with hearing loss, electronic assistive device users, who use oral language as their primary form of communication. RESULTS:The instruments were translated as Checklist de autoadvocacia "Eu consigo" e Checklists de Autoadvocacia em Audiologia - Ensino Fundamental I, Ensino Fundamental II and Ensino Médio. G1 did not report difficulties regarding the terms used in the checklists; however, they reported difficulties completing the student's progress. The audiologists who used the checklists to interview G2 did not report difficulties regarding the use of the instrument. Therefore, after pre-testing the prefinal version, there was no need to make changes to the instruments, which were then presented as the final version. CONCLUSION:All Self-Advocacy Checklists were translated and cross-culturally adapted into Brazilian Portuguese and are valid instruments to measure the self-advocacy skills of students with hearing loss in a clinical context.