Publications

O’Neill, R. & Wilks, R. (in preparation). Exploring attitudes to British Sign Language in Scotland and Wales.
Wilks, R. (in press). From barking dogs to roarless dragons: The legal recognition of sign languages across the United Kingdom. Sign Language Studies, Winter(26)
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. Deafness and Education International.

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

Wilks, R. (submitted). ‘Deaf Legal Theory’ in McAuliffe, K and Moreno, J. (Eds.). Encylopaedia of Language and Law. Edward Elgar.
Wilks, R., Shank, C., Foltz, A., & Rhys-Jones, S. (in press). Giving voice to deaf patients in Wales: Promoting more positive healthcare experiences through first-person narratives. In K. Kondo, S. Vilar-Lluch, M. Tsimpiri, T. Zhou, & A. Musolff (Eds.), Discourses of Inclusive and Exclusionary Health Communication: Healthcare, Language and Inclusivity, Volume 1. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Discourses-of-Inclusive-and-Exclusionary-Health-Communication-Healthcare-Language-and-Inclusivity-Volume-1/Kondo-Vilar-Lluch-Tsimpiri-Zhou-Musolff/p/book/9781032813790.

Wilks, R. (2026). Special Section: Introducing Deaf Legal Studies [Editorial]. Amicus Curiae 7(2), 721-735. https://doi.org/10.14296/ac.v7i2.5890.
Wilks, R., & O’Neill, R. (2026). Integrating British Sign Language into deaf education. Language Learning Journal, 54(1), 182-193. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2025.2554235.
Wilks, R., & Venade de Sousa, F. (2025). Interpreting the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages: Sign languages as regional and minority languages. International Journal of Speech Language and the Law, 32(1), 62-85. https://doi.org/10.3138/ijsll-2024-0025.
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. (2025). 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., & 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. (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.

O’Neill, R., McEwan, E. R., & Wilks, R. (2026). Guiding principles and codes of practice: Do teachers of deaf children and young people need them?. Professional Responsibility and Relationality in Deaf Education. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Professional-Responsibility-and-Relationality-in-Deaf-Education/Friedner-ONeill-Snoddon/p/book/9781041238737.
Wilks, R. (2025). Recognising the EU’s national sign languages: A deaf legal theory perspective. In A. Bloxs (Ed.), From recognition to officialisation. An European evolution of sign language rights (pp. 53-66). European Union for the Deaf. https://eud.eu/publications/books/.
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, October 2). Action plan: Research engagement with the Welsh Deaf Community. https://bsl-deaf.wales/action-plan-and-toolkit/.
Wilks, R. (2025). Co-producing the Deaf Legal Theory model final report. UWE impact Acceleration Account.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)