Sign LOUD roundtable and report ‘Perspectives of deaf mothers and signing practitioners on domestic abuse, communication issues and the impact on Deaf families’

In early December we attended Sign LOUD’s event, engaging with Deaf community members, Scottish Government representatives, MSPs, and survivors to discuss findings from the Sign LOUD project on domestic abuse, deaf mothers and communication issues affecting deaf families. This bilingual event (BSL and English) included interpreters and a roundtable discussion on ongoing implications.

We discussed how language barriers compound the challenges faced by both women and children experiencing domestic abuse and how children are often involved in assisting with communication in deaf families, highlighting ‘Sign language brokering’ that can occur.

Read more about the research via the report here: https://signs.hw.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Sign-LOUD-Research-report-pdf-final.pdf

Over the next year we will be continuing to find ways that the DACA project can support all survivors of abuse and promote the importance of their communication needs being met.