Overview

QUB Supervisors: Professor Bronagh Byrne and Dr Catherine McNamee

Project Partner: National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS)

Background: Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC,1989) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD, 2006), deaf children and young people (and their families) have the right to access appropriate and accessible health care provision and to be educated in an environment that best meets their needs. These rights encompass the provision of accessible communication and information whether in the form of sign languages and requiring access to interpreters across health and education settings; captioning or through the use of communication devices such as loop systems. There is, however, lack of an evidence-base on the extent to which these rights are reflected in national law, policy and practice in Northern Ireland.

These issues are situated in the critical wider context of the Northern Ireland Children’s Strategy (2020-2030), the Children’s Services Cooperation Act (2016), the Department of Education’s End to End Review of Special Educational Needs, and Priority 5 of the 2024-2027 draft Programme for Government which calls for ‘Better Support for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs’. What is not clear, however, is the extent to which the particular needs and rights of deaf children and young people are reflected across these core documents.

Project overview: This project will adopt a children’s rights-based approach to understanding availability of, access to, adaptability and acceptability of supports and services for deaf children and young people and their families across health (including audiology) and education (including early years), and the extent of co-operation between these areas.

Research aims:

• Explore the extent to which the rights of deaf children and young people are reflected in law, policy and practice in Northern Ireland.
• Identify key supports and services for deaf children and young people and their families.
• Examine the perceptions of deaf children and young people, and their families, on the key enablers and barriers in accessing such supports.
• Develop recommendations for future services and supports.

Research methods:

• It is anticipated that the project will consist of four key strands: a critical analysis of law and policy in Northern Ireland; semi- structured interviews or focus groups with selected key stakeholders across health and education (including audiology services and teachers of the deaf); participatory research with deaf children and young people that prioritises accessible communication; and focus groups with families of deaf children and young people.