My research agenda
My research examines how law understands and responds to deaf people, with a particular focus on equality, language rights and legal recognition. It is organised around three interconnected strands.
Deaf Legal Studies
Deaf Legal Studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field examining the relationship between deaf people and law. My research seeks to develop its theoretical and methodological foundations, broaden its international reach, and establish it as a recognised field of legal scholarship.
Sign Language Law
Sign Language Law examines how sign languages are recognised and protected in law, and whether legal recognition translates into meaningful rights. My research compares approaches across jurisdictions to understand what makes sign language legislation effective in practice.
Deaf People, Law and Equality
Deaf People, Law and Equality critically examines how apparently progressive legal frameworks can nevertheless fail deaf people. Through my monograph programme, I explore the dilemmas, illusions and exclusions produced by law, and consider how legal frameworks might better deliver transformative equality.
2026
Paternalism and the UK’s Sign Language Laws
Co-Author
This article examines the development and implementation of sign language laws across the United Kingdom, focusing on whether statutory recognition has translated into meaningful linguistic rights and greater decision-making power for deaf communities.
Drawing on Ruiz’s language planning orientations, paternalism and the Deaf Legal Illusion, the study critically examines the assumptions underpinning sign language laws in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland. Particular attention is given to parliamentary debates, the framing of deaf people and sign languages, and the extent to which deaf communities have been able to influence legislative and policy decisions.
We consider whether these laws represent a shift towards deaf self-determination or continue to reproduce paternalistic approaches in which governments retain control over language planning and implementation.
SHane Gilchrist, Katie O’connor
Active · Writing
2025-2027
Strengthening Global Majority Representation in Deaf Legal Theory: A Pilot Project in Ghana
Principal Investigator
UWE Bristol VC ECR: £25,000
Ghana National Association of the Deaf
Active · Data Collection
2024-2028
Deaf Health Wales
Co-Investigator
AHRC: £1.04m
Bangor University, University of Graz, British Deaf Association, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Centre of Sign Sight Sound and action deafness cymru
Active · Data Collection · Writing
2024
Guiding Principles and Codes of Practice: Do Teachers of Deaf Children and Young People Need Them?
Co-Investigator
NDCS: £5,000
Rachel O’Neill, University of Edinburgh
Active · Writing
2023-2027
Developing Deaf Legal Theory
Volume to be published by Oxford University Press
Co-Editor
Dai O’Brien, York St John University
Active · Writing
2025
The Welsh Deaf Community and the Future Generations Act
Principal Investigator
UWE Bristol HEIF: £2,500
Completed
2024-2025
Co-Producing the Deaf Legal Theory Model
Principal Investigator
UWE Bristol AHRC IAA: £15,000
Completed
2024-2025
Pilot Project: Deaf Legal Theory Foundation
Selected Participant
Kindling Ventures
Completed
2023-2024
Developing a Community-Based Research Consortium to Identify Health Disparities, Inequalities and Inequities Faced by the Deaf BSL-Using Community in Wales
Co-Investigator
Bangor University Innovation & Impact Award: £34,500
Bangor University, University of Graz, British Deaf Association, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Centre of Sign Sight Sound and action deafness cymru
Completed
2023
Expanding the BSL and Deaf Research Network in Wales
Co-Investigator
Learned Society of Wales: £1,000
Dr Julia Terry, Swansea University
Completed
2022
Deaf Education and the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015: Comparisons with the Welsh Approach
Principal Investigator
USW ECR Prime Pump: £4,500
Rachel O’Neill, University of Edinburgh
Completed
