Recent research has shown that a distinct variety of American Sign Language, known as Black ASL, developed in the segregated schools for deaf African Americans in the US South during the pre-civil rights era. Research has also shown that in some respects Black ASL is closer than most white varieties to the standard taught in ASL classes and found…

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was famously advocating for sign language to be the language of instruction for deaf children in the United States, European philosophers were founding modern linguistics. Gallaudet was not able to benefit from their breakthroughs, however, because his upbringing,…

The aim of the paper is to investigate India's language policy for its deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Although India's language policy has been examined in great detail in existing research, policies for deaf and hard-of-hearing have received little attention by scholars. In light of the scarcity of debate and research on policies for deaf…

The aim of this study was to examine how sign language policies are being implemented in special schools for the Deaf in Zimbabwe. It employed in-depth interviews to solicit data from 29 participants who were four district school inspectors, four educational psychologists, four school heads and 17 grade one to three specialist teachers. Data were…

In this article, we visualize a framework of the intersectionality of literacy, spatial justice, and multimodality in teaching literacy to Filipino Deaf students. We propose a metaphor-based framework and discuss how it can be used in teaching literacy to Filipino Deaf students through classroom examples as well as suggestions and recommendations…

The article presents a systematical review of the studies on the Spanish and international language policy in signs language. The target is the analysis of the diverse international politics, demonstrating the current state of the education of language of signs and its possible progress in the inclusive education, there being valued the teaching…

Research interest in heritage speakers and their patterns of bilingual development has grown substantially over the last decade, prompting sign language researchers to consider how the concepts of heritage language and heritage speakers apply in the Deaf community. This overview builds on previous proposals that ASL [American Sign Language] and…

The purpose of the empirical study, "The English-Language and Reading Achievement of a Cohort of Deaf Students Speaking and Signing Standard English: A Preliminary Study" (Nielsen et al., 2016), was to investigate the English-language abilities and reading achievement of a sample of students who were deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) and…

At present, English holds a significant importance in numerous countries worldwide, including Thailand where learning English is compulsory for students. For students with hearing impairment, however, due to their physical limitations, English instruction is different from that of other students. Additionally, students with hearing impairment have…

Aim(s): The number of deaf children and young people (CYP) being educated in inclusive mainstream settings rather than special schools has grown over recent years, however, this has not been without its challenges. This qualitative study aims to address a gap in the research literature by investigating what stakeholders consider to be the…

Communication is an innate behavior people engage in to convey one's thoughts, needs, and interests to others (Knapp, Hall, & Horgan, 2014). Recommended Practices from the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC, 2014) encourage teachers to partner with families to implement strategies that support…

This article focuses on the similar approaches to, yet different contexts of legal recognition of sign languages in Sweden and Norway. We use examples from sign language documentation (both scientific and popular), legislation that mentions sign language, organization of implementation of sign language acquisition, and public discourse (as…

Colonial and decolonial tensions manifested in a unique, Mexican school for the deaf that used Mexican Sign Language for instruction. (De)colonial tensions were inherent in the school's work, from its non-Mexican, Foreign-origin school board to its child-of-deaf-adults principal's vision. We observed the presence of a colonial legacy, decolonial…

In the study reported on here we investigated the effects of sign language barriers among Deaf learners in special schools for the Deaf and Blind in the Motheo District in the Free State province of South Africa. Semi-structured focus group interviews were held with 7 teachers (2 males and 5 females) and 10 Grade 8 learners (6 males and 4 females)…

This paper reports on an international collaborative project working with deaf learners of English literacy (19-28 years old) in five locations in India: Indore; Vadadora; Comibatore; Pattambi; and Thrissur. Indian Sign Language (ISL) was the language of instruction. The project drew on a social practices view of literacy. Deaf peer tutors were…