Intersectional inclusion for deaf learners: moving beyond General Comment no. 4 on Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the meaning of inclusive education for deaf learners in a way that acknowledges the diversity of learner identities, and outlines problems with normative definitions of inclusive education as advanced by recent interpretations of Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This discussion calls on us to reconsider how the concepts of inclusion and segregation are understood in education for all learners with intersectional identities. We outline the legislative history of the CRPD and Article 24, show the active involvement of deaf advocacy organisations, and highlight contradictions with this history in the CRPD Committee’s recent General Comment No. 4 on Article 24. We provide examples of innovative models of inclusive education for deaf learners that provide an education in sign language and discuss the implications of these arguments for inclusive education as a whole.

KEYWORDS:

• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• deaf learners
• sign language
• inclusive education
• bilingual education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Joseph J. Murray is Professor of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University. He has published widely in the fields of deaf studies, history, human rights, and applied linguistics. His research interests involve sign language policy and planning, historical deaf circulations, and cultural articulations of difference and diversity.

Kristin Snoddon is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies, Carleton University, Canada. Her research interests are in applied sign language linguistics and sign language planning and policy. Her research and professional experience includes collaborative work with deaf communities in developing sign language and early literacy programming for deaf children and parents.

Maartje De Meulder is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Language, Text, and Transmediality (NaLTT) of the University of Namur, Belgium. Her research interests are in sign language policy and planning, sign language vitality and maintenance, and the implementation of inclusive education. She is consulting the Flemish deaf association on the implementation of inclusive education in Flanders.

Kathryn Underwood is an Associate Professor at the School of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University. Kathryn's research interests are in human rights and education practice particularly with regard to disability rights and inclusive education. Kathryn's research experience includes work in family-school relationships, special education policy, and early childhood education and care policy, in both Canada and internationally. Recent research has focused on parent viewpoints of early years services in early intervention, child care, Full Day Kindergarten, Ontario Early Years Centres and Parenting and Family Literacy Centres.

ORCID

Kristin Snoddon http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2866-5381