Deaf People’s Retrospective Views and Lived Experiences of Ableism and Discrimination in Education: A Qualitative Study Informed by Critical Disability Studies

This qualitative study examines deaf people’s lived experiences of ableism and discrimination in mainstream and special school settings. Through the lens of critical disability studies theory, the researcher conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 13 deaf adult individuals in Ireland who self-reported experiencing ableism and discrimination in school. Interviews were thematically analysed resulting in the generation of four themes on the different ways in which the study participants experienced ableism in school contexts and the consequences of this ableism on their education. The themes are: denial of opportunities to learn and use Irish Sign Language (ISL); ableist barriers to accessing incidental learning; deaf teachers; and the ableism of low expectations. The findings demonstrate that attitudinal barriers to accessing ISL in the classroom negatively impacted on deaf people’s social and educational lives. The findings highlight the need to ensure human rights are at the core of deaf education policy.