Perceptions of Deaf education in the Deaf community.
Gearóidín McEvoy
PMID 42335292WHAT IT FOUND
Deaf adults in Finland, Ireland and the UK said education was not giving Deaf children meaningful sign language access.
They wanted bilingual Deaf education, not mainstreaming or mixed sign and speech approaches, and said laws had not fixed this.
Key findings
01Education was a major concern across the interviews, and 23 participants referenced it.
02Participants wanted meaningful bilingual Deaf education; no participant expressed desire for total communication, mainstreaming or special education.
03Participants linked education concerns to doubts about teaching quality, limited real choice for families, and fewer Deaf schools.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study reports Deaf adults' perceptions, not measured child outcomes or tested interventions. The author states the research could have benefited from a broader international study and more participants. The author was hearing, had an intermediate command of ISL and no command of other signed languages, and relied on interpreters to translate interviews into English. Member checking was not possible because participants were not guaranteed to be competent in written English. A larger research team could have allowed a second person to establish intercoder reliability. Detailed participant background data, such as age, race or gender identity, were not collected.
Declared interests
The article states the research was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship from the European Commission.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that bilingual Deaf education improves child outcomes. It reports Deaf adults' perceptions and desired policy changes, not measured child outcomes or tested interventions.