Publications

Wilks, R. (in preparation). Deaf Legal Studies: Defining a Field.
Wilks, R. (in preparation). SIGN-EI: The Sign Language Law Effectiveness Index.
Wilks, R. (in preparation). Co-Producing the Deaf Legal Theory Model: Challenges and Insights.
Wilks, R. (in preparation). The Co-Produced Deaf Legal Theory Model.
O’Neill, R. & Wilks, R. (accepted). Integrating British Sign Language into Deaf Education. Language Learning Journal.
O’Neill, R. & Wilks, R. (in preparation). Exploring attitudes to British Sign Language in Scotland and Wales.
Wilks, R. (accepted). From Barking Dogs to Roarless Dragons: The Legal Recognition of British Sign Language across the United Kingdom. Sign Language Studies
Sousa, F. V. de and Wilks, R. (accepted). Interpreting the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages: sign languages as regional and minority languages.’ International Journal of Speech, Language and Law.

Wilks, R. and O’Brien, D. (Eds). (in preparation). Developing Deaf Legal Theory. [more information]
Wilks, R. (under review). The Deaf Legal Dilemma: Challenging Equality Law. Hart Publishing.

Bohringer, C., Burns, E., O’Neill, R., Swannack, R. and Wilks, R. (submitted). Deaf students’ rights to use sign language in the curriculum and in public examinations: Comparing South Africa and the UK. In: Adigun, O., Fobi, D., and Matjila, T. Policies and Issues in D/deaf Studies and Education. IGI Global.
Wilks. R. (submitted). Recognising the EU’s National Sign Languages: A Deaf Legal Theory Perspective. In: Bloxs, A., Picron, F. and Olhausen, C. National Sign Languages: a guideline for the Implementation of Article 21 CRPD within the European Union. European Union of the Deaf.
Wilks, R. (submitted). ‘Deaf Legal Theory’ in McAuliffe, K and Moreno, J. (Eds.). Encylopaedia of Language and Law. Edward Elgar.
Wilks, R., Rhys-Jones, S., Shank, C. and Folz, A., (in press). ‘Giving voice to deaf patients in Wales: Promoting more positive healthcare experiences through first-person narratives’ in K. Kondo, A. Musolff, S. Vilar-Lluch and T. Zhou, Healthcare, Language and Inclusivity. Routledge Studies in Language, Health and Culture. Routledge.

O’Neill, R., McEwan, E. R., & Wilks, R. (2025). Guiding principles and codes of practice: Do teachers of deaf children and young people need them?. Deafness and Education International, 1-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/14643154.2025.2468990.
Wilks, R. (online). Deaf legal theory: Challenging the law’s hearing bias. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, https://doi.org/10.1093/jdsade/enaf010.
Wilks, R. (2024). Unseen and Unheard: How the Future Generations Act is not Addressing the Needs of the Welsh Deaf Community. Disability & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2024.2412267.
Wilks, R., & O’Neill, R. (2025). Adopting British Sign Language in deaf education: Lessons from Welsh and Gaelic. Languages, Society and Policy. https://www.lspjournal.com/post/adopting-british-sign-language-in-deaf-education-lessons-from-welsh-and-gaelic

Wilks, R. (2025). ‘Language Law and Social Justice: A Case Study on the Deaf Community in the United Kingdom’. In: H. Sauntson, C. Cunningham, J. Ennser-Kananen, D. O’Brien. Language and Social Justice: An Introduction to Linguistic Activism. Routledge.
Wilks, R, ‘Developing Deaf jurisprudence: the role of interpreters and translators’, in Stone, C, Adam, R, Müller de Quadros, R and Rathmann, C, Routledge Handbook of Sign Language Translation and Interpreting (Routledge, 2022).
Lawson, L, McLean, F, O’Neill, R and Wilks, R, ‘Recognising British Sign Language in Scotland’, in De Meulder, M, McKee, R and Murray, J, The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages: Advocacy and Outcomes Around the World (Multilingual Matters, 2019).

Wilks, R. (2025). Co-producing the Deaf Legal Theory model final report. UWE impact Acceleration Account. Available from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13610058
Wilks, R. & O’Neill, R. (2022). Deaf Education in Scotland and Wales: Attitudes to British Sign Language in deaf education compared to Gaelic and Welsh. https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deafeducation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5764/2022/10/2-FINAL-REPORT.pdf.
O’Neill, R., & Wilks, R. (2021). The impact of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 on deaf education. https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/deafeducation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5764/2021/11/FINAL-REPORT.pdf.
Brattan-Wilson, J and Wilks, R, ‘Making the law work for young Deaf people’ (Royal Association for Deaf people 2012).
Masterson, D, ‘Disability Discrimination Act 1995, why do barriers still exist for d/Deaf people?’ (Wilks, R, ed, Royal Association for Deaf people 2007).

Rob Wilks, ‘Legal Analysis: Examining suggested workplace improvements for D/deaf workers’ (LexisPSL, 15 September 2016)

Wilks, R, ‘Brexit – what impact will Brexit have on the Deaf community?’ (British Deaf News, 1 November 2016)
Wilks, R, ‘Brexit – UK’s greatest constitutional crisis yet?’ (British Deaf News, 1 October 2016)
Wilks, R, ‘Brexit – what’s it all about?’ (British Deaf News, 1 September 2016)
Wilks, R, ‘We don’t need a BSL Act, apparently’ (British Deaf News, 1 June 2016)
Wilks, R, ‘Analysis: Are you in court and know the interpreter well? Inform the judge’ (British Deaf News, December 2015)
Rob Wilks, ‘Deaf people and access to legal services’ (Limping Chicken, 21 May 2012)