CENTRE FOR DEAF STUDIES Sign on Europe A Study of Deaf People and Sign Language in the European Union A study in 17 countries, carried out upon request of the European Union of the Deaf CENTRE FOR DEAF STUDIES Sign on Europe A Research Project on The Status of Sign Language in Europe Version 2.1 October 1998 carried out upon request of the European Union of the Deaf funded by The European Parliament and the European Commission DGV E3 Prepared by Jim Kyle and Lorna Allsop with support from Rachel Sutton-Spence, Clark Denmark, Linda Day, Gary Morgan, Joseph Collins, Angela Lucy Petrou and Astrid Domingo-Molyneux Produced by The Centre for Deaf Studies University of Bristol 22 Berkeley Square Bristol BS8 1HP ISBN 0 86292 465 0 Copyright © 1998 Centre for Deaf Studies and European Union of the Deaf All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers. Printed in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire iii Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... VII SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................... 1 DEAF PEOPLE ........................................................................................................................ 2 ORGANISATIONS .................................................................................................................... 2 HEARING INDIVIDUALS ............................................................................................................ 3 COMPARISONS ....................................................................................................................... 3 UNDERSTANDING DEAFNESS AND SIGN LANGUAGE ..................................................... 5 BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................... 5 THE PRIMARY ISSUES .............................................................................................................. 5 TWO LANGUAGES ................................................................................................................... 6 A VIEW OF DEAFNESS ............................................................................................................. 7 AREAS OF GROWTH AND CHANGE ................................................................................................ 8 Deaf Roles in Research .................................................................................................... 9 Integration ..................................................................................................................... 9 Interventions .................................................................................................................. 9 Video Information ......................................................................................................... 10 Mental Health Difficulties ............................................................................................... 10 THE FUTURE ....................................................................................................................... 11 DEAF COMMUNITY AND CULTURE ................................................................................ 12 WHAT WE KNOW ALREADY ...................................................................................................... 12 THE DEAF COMMUNITY .......................................................................................................... 12 DEAF PEOPLE AT WORK ......................................................................................................... 13 Satisfaction at Work ...................................................................................................... 13 Jobs Deaf PeoPle can Do ................................................................................................ 13 Bias in the Workplace .................................................................................................... 14 EDUCATION ........................................................................................................................ 14 SIGN LANGUAGE .................................................................................................................. 15 DEAF CULTURAL LIFE ............................................................................................................ 16 Cultural IDentity ............................................................................................................ 17 Deafness-Hearingness ................................................................................................... 17 HOW MANY DEAF PEOPLE? ..................................................................................................... 17 Searching for Statistics in Europe ................................................................................... 17 THE STATUS OF SIGN LANGUAGE ................................................................................ 19 RESEARCH ......................................................................................................................... 19 People influence language anD language use .................................................................. 20 Language influences people ........................................................................................... 21 Society anD language influence each other ..................................................................... 21 Neither interact With each other or influence each other .................................................. 21 Attitudes to languages and varieties of a language .......................................................... 22 Language planning ........................................................................................................ 22 Standardisation ............................................................................................................. 23 UnDerstanDing the situation of sign language .................................................................. 23 METHOD FOR THE STUDY ............................................................................................. 25 THE SAMPLE POPULATIONS ..................................................................................................... 25 Deaf PeoPle .................................................................................................................. 25 Institutions ................................................................................................................... 26 Hearing individuals ........................................................................................................ 27 Status of Sign Language - v PROCEDURE ........................................................................................................................ 28 Preparatory Work .......................................................................................................... 28 Project Work ................................................................................................................. 29 a: contacts With researchers .......................................................................................... 29 b: contacts With NCs ..................................................................................................... 29 c. pilot work in Bristol .................................................................................................... 29 d: questionnaires and plans ........................................................................................... 29 e: translations ............................................................................................................... 30 e: WorkshoP ................................................................................................................. 30 SCHEDULE .......................................................................................................................... 31 Data Processing ............................................................................................................ 31 THE PARTICIPANTS ...................................................................................................... 33 THE PLANNED SAMPLE ........................................................................................................... 33 Deaf ResPondents ......................................................................................................... 35 RESPONSES FROM INSTITUTIONS .............................................................................................. 38 RESPONSES FROM HEARING INDIVIDUALS ................................................................................... 39 DEAF VIEWS ................................................................................................................. 42 PERSPECTIVES FROM THE INTERVIEWS WITH DEAF PEOPLE .............................................................. 42 GENERAL POINTS ................................................................................................................. 42 DEAF PEOPLE’S COMMUNICATION ............................................................................................