An Education in Sign Language as a Human Right?: The Sensory Exception in the Legislative History and Ongoing Interpretation of Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Sign language interpreting services

“…While the quality of education those schools provide has varied greatly (and still does), these congregated settings with a critical mass of deaf children were the only settings where deaf children could experience spontaneous peer interaction and access to incidental learning. Deaf learners going to regular schools with the often sole support of SLI has now become normative practice, despite being in clear contradiction with the spirit of legislation on inclusion, primarily the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Murray, De Meulder, and le Maire 2018).…”

“…There is reason to ask if a so-called inclusive or interpreter-mediated education (meaning, a deaf child receiving education in a classroom with almost all if not only hearing classmates and an interpreter) should be preferred over a bilingual learning environment where the instruction and communication is in a sign language, and teaching is undertaken by those trained to teach. SLI can give deaf students partial access to classroom interaction, but when teachers, policymakers, parents, and even some interpreters confuse the presence of an interpreter with inclusive education, as Thoutenhoofd (2005) and Murray et al (2018) indicate, SLIS are becoming a quick, less than ideal substitute for the kind of inclusive, congregated education settings that deaf schools, or other congregated settings, can provide. As we witness the steady closure of deaf schools around the world and the growing presence of sign language interpreters in classrooms with deaf students, we should be prepared to call into question the SLIS institution's complicity in the dismantling of congregated education systems, all the more because schools are common workplaces for novice interpreters (Russell 2007).…”

Bilingual school education with spoken and signed languages in Europe

“…This means that most children and parents in Europe must choose between so-called inclusive education in mainstream schools that only offer spoken language instruction, or bimodal bilingual education in special schools for DHH pupils. For a critical discussion of inclusive education for DHH pupils, see Murray J, De Meulder, and Le Maire (2018).…”

How inclusive is the right to inclusive education? An assessment of the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities’ concluding observations

“…Rather, it would appear from the Concluding Observations to date, that the Committee has implicitly interpreted Article 24(3)'s reference to 'environments which maximise academic and social development' to mean mainstream educational environments as a matter of course rather than acknowledging the need for a nuanced approach to be taken to inclusive education for different impairment groups. Doing so glosses over the rationale for Article 24(3)'s inclusion in the first place and the need for 'sensory exception' to be made to the principle of inclusive education, for deaf, blind, and deafblind children and young people (Murray, De Meulder, and le Maire 2018).…”