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Citizenship and the Deaf Community (Chapter 8 – Policy implications: 8.1 Introduction)

Chapter 8 – Policy implications

8.1 Introduction

Having considered the implications of the research findings to theory, this chapter addresses the potential and possible impacts on social policy. Before doing so, an outline of some of the key findings will be repeated. The topic of education raised most concern amongst Deaf people in the focus groups; the RCG also addressed and discussed this issue. Education is raised in detail here to indicate a) the discourses that were used, b) how it was often a polemical debate but more importantly, c) the references to citizenship that were made by all sides of the debate. The extent of the domination of oralism will be indicated but the other main approach often referred to in the literature, sign bilingualism, will also be considered.

This chapter continues to use a critical approach; the role of those with power will be addressed and the extent of this power will become evident in the section on audism. Additionally, and as was touched on in the previous chapter, the way in which our society is phonocentric will be explored in further depth. The implications of these issues, however, will be explored in relation to citizenship and Deaf communities. It is important to repeat and clarify that an exploration of these particular concepts has arisen following an analysis of the fieldwork data. Attempts are made in this chapter to suggest areas that might be addressed in social policy.

In the previous chapter, emphasis was given to the ways in which the Deaf world interlinks with the hearing world and, although the identified differences are not downplayed, this interlinking has suggested that possible ways of addressing problems might lie in taking a holistic approach. What this could be extrapolated to mean in practice is that the Deaf world wants their particular language and cultural mores recognised; they want policies and practices in place that enable such worlds to flourish (and not be assimilated); and they insist the responsibility for doing so should be relinquished to Deaf communities. Co-operation between institutions of civil society and Deaf communities is suggested as the way forward to achieving this, and this chapter will explore ways in which that might be possible. Brief mention is made of the possibility of encouraging transnational networking and group rights to further this end.

Finally in this chapter there will be an examination of the methodological approach taken in the thesis.