A sense of real achievement? The experience of deaf students in social work and youth and community work training

Abstract

This article reports on the findings of a research project that focuses upon the experience of deaf students in higher education, in particular social work and youth and community work training. Central to these courses is the notion of anti-discriminatory practice, and the development of skills in working with people. However, it cannot be assumed that such courses offer a positive experience to disadvantaged people, and deaf students participating in the project report a general dissatisfaction with the courses they attended. The project was designed to involve deaf people from the outset, and to seek the views of deaf students on what they considered to be important about their experiences in social work and youth and community work training. Respondents identified three major areas of difficulty: poor support services, a lack of deaf awareness amongst students and tutors, and, an absence of deaf issues in course curricula. The findings are discussed with a view to future research possibilities and imp...