Abstract
For many deaf signers, a signed language is their first or preferred language; spoken or written languages are often second languages and literacy levels among deaf signers vary. Historically, surveys carried out with deaf signers have been in written form, which means that findings of such studies may be problematic in terms of whether participants are a representative sample (as only those with higher levels of literacy may respond) and in terms of the integrity of the responses (if respondents did not fully understand questions). This paper therefore discusses issues faced in conducting survey research with deaf signers, given that they may face challenges in accessing questionnaires in written form. The paper also discusses how to conduct a multi-country study with deaf signers when they do not have a common sign language by designing a questionnaire using International Sign. We present a case study of the Insign project, which employed an online survey methodology that allowed 84 deaf respondents from 22 different countries to view questions in International Sign about their experiences with existing communication technologies and their expectations of service provision to access European Institutions. We explore the advantages and disadvantages of such an approach in relation to the use of International Sign, challenges in recruiting enough respondents, the time needed to create a signed questionnaire instrument, and how to enable deaf participants to respond in sign language. We conclude with recommendations for social science researchers to consider when administering surveys with deaf signing communities.
Highlights
Current research in the social sciences has a tendency to overlook the experiences of deaf signers, and this omission has resulted in the under-Translation & Interpreting Vol 10 No 2 (2018)representation of deaf signers in academic literature (Kusters, De Meulder, & O’Brien, 2017; Young & Temple, 2014)
While we are aware that many deaf signers who consider themselves to be bilingual in a signed and spoken and/or written language may be content to participate in written surveys, and more are able to effectively participate in surveys that adopt a mixed approach of signed and written languages (Lucas, Mirus, Palmer, Roessler, & Frost, 2013), we suggest that the use of written language within surveys still presents issues in trying to engage a broader range of deaf signers – who use different national sign languages – as research participants
The project was undertaken in collaboration with the European Union of the Deaf (EUD)2, and for the purposes of this paper we focus on deaf signers
Summary
Current research in the social sciences has a tendency to overlook the experiences of deaf signers, and this omission has resulted in the under-. We explore the affordances offered by digital technologies to improve communication with deaf signers in multilingual research contexts and facilitate the inclusion of a much broader range of participants than found in existing quantitative studies. These opportunities are demonstrated in relation to the Insign project (2013-2014), a proof-of-concept study funded through the Director General Justice of the European Commission to test the sustainability of a web-based platform that would enable deaf citizens to communicate directly with European institutions and their representatives using signed and spoken languages (Napier, Skinner, & Turner, 2017; Turner, Napier, Skinner, & Wheatley, 2016). We examine the advantages and limitations of this approach for enhancing existing research with signers in both Deaf Studies and the wider academic field
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