Is the Right to Access to the Services and Supports Ensured for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children? An Ethnographic Study Based on the Experience of Hearing Parents

Carolina Puyaltó,Charles Gaucher,Ann Beaton

doi:10.3390/soc8030053

Abstract

The right of people with disabilities to access services and supports they need is internationally recognized by the United Nations’ Convention (CRPD) on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. However, deaf and hard-of-hearing children face obstacles to access services requested by their parents. As part of a broader ethnographic research project focused on the experience of Francophone hearing parents of deaf and hard-of-hearing children, this study explores the obstacles encountered by parents in their struggle to ensure that the needs of their children are met. 117 parents from Canada (n = 52), Belgium (n = 15), France (n = 23), and Switzerland (n = 27) participated in an in-depth interview. The main findings show that parents face important difficulties to access the available services due to their rural location, situated far from the main health services and due to the long wait times. Also, the unavailability of some of the rehabilitation and educational services represent another important obstacle that leads parents to become the main advocates for their children rights. Finally, some lines of action to implement the CRPD provisions are drawn to contribute to the right of deaf and hard-of-hearing children to access to the services they need.

Highlights

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) adopted in 2006 by the UnitedNations [1] is a ‘testimony to the significant need for specific human rights instruments when it comes to certain categories of humanity whose condition has made them uniquely vulnerable to human rights violations and who are insufficiently protected by the existing, mainstream vocabulary of right’ [2](p. 515)
Of all the dimensions explored in this research project, we used data on the experience of parents with accessing to the services and supports offered to their deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) child
Gaining physical access to the services needed for the DHH children is a basic condition to guarantee their healthy development and wellbeing

Summary

Introduction

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) adopted in 2006 by the UnitedNations [1] is a ‘testimony to the significant need for specific human rights instruments when it comes to certain categories of humanity whose condition has made them uniquely vulnerable to human rights violations and who are insufficiently protected by the existing, mainstream vocabulary of right’ [2](p. 515). The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) adopted in 2006 by the United. One of the successes attributed to the CRPD is that it represents an instrument that can guide individuals and States on the interventions that could enable persons with disabilities to exercise their rights [4], especially to those 177 countries that have currently signed and ratified the Convention. Another success is the CRPD’s embrace of the social model of disabilities that directly highlights the need to foster a more accessible, inclusive, and equitable society. According to Harpur, the CRPD can help individuals that have to deal with the impact of their disabilities by ensuring them assistance with every aspect of their life [5]

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