Situating the socio‐economic position of Irish Deaf community in the equality framework

• Published date: 08 February 2013
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151311324406
• Date: 08 February 2013
• Pages: 173-194
• Author: John Bosco Conama

Situating the socio-economic

position of Irish Deaf community

in the equality framework

John Bosco Conama

Centre for Deaf Studies, School of Linguistic,

Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College,

University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Abstract

Purpose – Deaf communitiesincluding the Irish one, often identifythe status of their signed languages

as one of the defining indicators of their social standings. Thus, social justice measures must be

intertwinedwith the status of signed languages.The social justice issues for Deafcommunities identified

here are: access to media, recognition of signed languages and education. These issues are based on

several research data and are described in brief. The purpose of this paper is to locate the situational

position of Deaf communitiesin Ireland.

Design/methodology/approach – Tounderstand the way in which a more radical model of equality

would work for the Irish Deaf community, the author discusses an equality framework developed by

the Equality Studies Centre in University College Dublin, with the aim of advancing understanding of

what equality of condition would mean for Deaf people in relation to the access to media, recognition of

signed languages and education.

Findings – The evidence from research and literature shows the serious disadvantaged position held

by the Deaf communities in Ireland and other countries. The data presented alone show how both

discrimination and disadvantages are largely due to negative perspectives on deafness. These negative

perspectives are obviously influenced by historical, medical and religious factors.

Originality/value – The article raises awareness of the implications of different levels of equality on

the status of signed languages. These levels, by default, affect the socio-economic statuses of Deaf

communities. It is obvious from this study that equality of condition is the best option for Deaf

communities to achieve. This option demands a level of recognition and respect for signed languages,

equal to that afforded to national and dominant languages. This would help to minimise the belief that

signed languages are mere compensatory tools, which in tur n, would create more egalitarian treatment

for Deaf people who wished to pursue their main identity through the use of signed languages.

Keywords Ireland, Deaf people, Equality, Social justice, Signed language, Framework,

Equality of condition

Paper type Case study

Introduction

Deaf communities throughout the world undoubtedly suffer lower socio-economic

status in society when compared to the average status of the general population in their

respective countries (Conama and Grehan, 2001; Conroy, 2006; Haualand and Allen,

2009). These lower statuses may come about fo r a variety of reasons, ranging from

the lack of willingness in a society to accommodate for difference, to the ideologically

driven belief that deaf people are incapable of achieving higher statuses due to their

“disability” (Ladd, 2003; Emery, 2009).

For many deaf communities including the Irish deaf community, the status of

signed languages is intricately linked to their socio-economic statu s in wider society

(see World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), 2009; European Union of the Deaf (EUD),

1997; Irish Deaf Society (IDS), 2004). Current policies affecting the status of

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

Received 9 July 2012

Revised 21 November 2012

Accepted 2 December 2012

Equality, Diversityand Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol.32 No.2, 2013

pp. 173-194

rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/02610151311324406

173

The Irish deaf

community

signed languages vary from one country t o another country. Some countries manage to

achieve higher legal status for their indigen ous sign languages and other countries do

not accord any status to their indigenous sign languages. Howe ver, the bestowal of

higher legal status alone does not necessarily bring substantive equality to the de af

communities (WFD, 2009; Timmermans, 2005). This study proposes that it is essential

to locate the situations of deaf communities in societies in general within an equality

framework. This will provide a necessary understanding of why deaf communities

seek cultural and linguistic equalities in societies.

An equality framework as devised by the Equality Studies Centre in the University

College Dublin (UCD) (Baker et al., 2004) will provide a background when this is

described with the analysis of inequalities. This framework will enable and enhance

the strength of arguments with regard to the status of indigenous signed languages.

The paper will begin with a brief introduction to the equality framework and will

identify the approach of its application in order to evaluate the social position of deaf

communities, focusing especially on Ireland. An approach will be chosen and briefly

explained. Then specific issues and inequalities exp erienced by deaf communities will

be discussed. To address these issues and inequalities, I argue that in order to reach the

highest possible level of equality – equality of condition needs to be applied to the

administration of language policies, in order to reach substantive equality for deaf

communities.

Equality framework

The conceptualisation of inequalities in this regard is attributed to the Equality Studies

Centre in the UCD (Baker et al., 2004). Within the equality framework

there are four contexts where equality or inequality can be generated: the econo mic,

socio-cultural, political and affective spheres. Economic inequalities arise in the sphere

of economic relations and refer to the unequal distribution of material resources and

inequality in their ownership and control. Socio-cultural inequalities arise in the socio-

cultural sphere; they find expression in cultural domination, misrecognition and

symbolic misrepresentation or non-representation. Inequal ities in the political sphere

can be represented by political exclusion, political marginalisation or poli tical

misrepresentation. The affective sphere challenges the idea that the individual is

simply a rational and autonomous actor. Instead it identifies inequalities in the doing

of love and carework and in the deprivation of emotional nurturing and the ability to

develop intimate and solidarity-based human relations (Baker et al., 2004).

Baker et al. (2004) also identify five dimensions of equality each of which is related

to the four contexts in different ways; these are respect and recognition, resources,

working and learning, power and the affective dimension.

It is important to differentiate between the contexts and dimensions of equality. The

contexts refer to the structural relations or sites of social practice where inequality or

equality can be promoted. The dimensions refer to different egalitarian issues within

the contexts. These impact on different groups in different ways. For example, the

primary generative source of c lass inequality is in the economi c sphere where

capitalism produces major inequa lities in wealth, income and in the owners hip and

control of goods and services. The major inequalities for deaf people arise in the socio-

cultural domain where their culture and language is not full y respected or recognised.

However, even though an injustice may originate in one domain, it impacts on others;

the lack of respect towards signed language means that deaf people are often excluded

from participation in politics and from many areas of employment. All dimensions of

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