Visualisation Techniques for Consent: Finding Common Ground in Comic Art with Indigenous Populations

With emerging technologies such as genome
research and the digitization of health records comes the need
for new models of informed consent. In this climate of
innovation people are often prone to explore the latest
technological advancement as possible solutions, including for
informed consent. In this paper, we present the design and
evaluation of a so-called low-tech informed consent solution that
was designed specifically for the informational and cultural
needs of a vulnerable indigenous population, i.e., the San of
South Africa. This low-tech solution took the form of a comic
and, although it could enhance understanding and
identification, the costs and labour intensity of comic design and
the deriving limitations on its scalability should be critically
considered in the light of a digitised and more standardized
solution.