DEALS · Deaf life narratives in times of transition.

Deaf life narratives in times of transition.

Being able to tell your life story is essential for understanding your humanity and identity, and coping with life transitions. This fundamental aspect of being human is often not evident and accessible for deaf adults and young deaf people using a signed language. The study ‘Deaf life narratives in times of transition’ works with British Sign Language (BSL) users and deaf migrants, who may use another sign language as well. It investigates the potential of a culturally familiar practice, signed storytelling, as a means of promoting agency, resilience and well-being. Using narrative therapy, narrative analysis and grounded theory, the project explored the significance of life story work to enhance well-being from a cross-cultural perspective, engaging with deaf migrants from diverse nation states. This resulted in a life story instrument that exploits the visual learning strengths of deaf people and the properties of visual (non-textual) languages through digital media. The study extends current research on narrative methods as a form of cultural brokering and emancipatory methodologies within critical deaf epistemologies, whilst providing culturally appropriate means for promoting deaf well-being. This is one of the few empirical explorations of the universal-specific tension in deaf identity constructions in relation to well-being. As such, the research highlighted the potential of deaf life story work (DLSW) to support individuals’ understanding of conflicts that may arise when participating in multiple communities and integrating multiple selves. This biographic-narrative study facilitated insight into the life transitions that deaf people undergo and is the first study to explore how DLSW might facilitate some of these transitions.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union