Unmasking educational inequalities: The impact of COVID-19 on deaf students in higher education

This research project provides an examination of the impact of COVID-19 on deaf students in higher education.

Social distancing measures have had a particularly severe impact on deaf people, many of whom rely on the facial communication for access to many services and relationships with other human beings. For deaf students in higher education this is compounded by the number of support systems required to improve access and inclusion throughout their student journey.

Within this research a wide definition of deaf students is used to include those who identify as deaf, Deaf BSL users, deafened, deafblind and hard of hearing.

Even before the pandemic there were significant problems. Existing research showed that 46% of deaf students did not have their support in place at the start of their course and over half of those waited more than two months to receive it (NDCS, 2019). Social distancing measures have had particularly severe impacts on deaf people (Action on Hearing Loss, 2020).

There is a gap in knowledge of: a) the level and detail of these impacts on deaf students b) what considerations were given to deaf students in university planning and implementation of COVID-19 regulations c) the likely long term impact on deaf student experience and outcomes This project aims to address all these gaps.

Although there has been significant coverage of the impact of the pandemic on higher education students, there has been a distinct lack of representation of the specific impacts on deaf students within that coverage. This is a valuable opportunity to conduct widespread research which will explore experiences in HEIs across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

It will take a mixed methods approach, using both interviews and surveys to firstly gain a good understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on deaf students' HE experience and secondly to identify good practice that might help to mitigate some of these impacts in the short and longer term future provision. It will provide an insight into institutional responses to COVID-19.

Institutional responses such as remote working, online teaching, facial coverings, online induction and extra-curricula activities will be explored. Deaf students' experiences of these measures will also be explored including any particular impacts on availability of human aids to communication such as interpreters, note takers, language support tutors, lip-speakers and sighted guides for deafblind people.

The research will examine issues of inclusion and accessibility, in the online classroom and the wider organisations. It will examine institutional planning and responsiveness in the short, medium and longer term, but also in relation to future practices aimed at mitigating disadvantages experienced by deaf students so far. The research seeks to make recommendations for supporting current students in the remaining part of their studies.

Given the current calls to re-think HE provision (Hack, 2020), the project team will also work in collaboration with students, support providers and HEIs in order to make best practice recommendations that enhancing remote learning provision for deaf students.

The research also adds a valuable contribution to the work being done by disabled students organisations and the national Disabled Student's Commission with its focus on the challenges in responding to the pandemic whilst ensuring disabled students are adequately supported. The research is supported by National Deaf Children's Society and builds on their ongoing work to raise awareness of existing communication barriers made worse by the pandemic.

In providing recommendations on best practice in teaching deaf students online it has relevance to the current review of digital teaching and learning being conducted by the Office for Students, and the work of Advance HE and other organisations looking at the future shape of higher education post pandemic.