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.