By Emma Reilly

“If she’s deaf she will not get very far”.  This was a common phrase during my school education. Despite being repeatedly told I would not be able to progress to higher education, I am currently a master’s student at University College London (UCL). With deaf awareness week this week what better time to discuss the experiences of deaf young people!?

I have created a questionnaire, which is in both BSL and English for deaf young people aged 18-30.

The questionnaire focuses on school experience, what you are currently doing now, what support worked well and what needs to be improved. I hope to use the anonymised results to help change current transition policies and support.

Questionnaire – https://redcap.slms.ucl.ac.uk/surveys/?s=TT8HRX4HF8

The reason for setting up this research is because being deaf myself I faced a lot of barrier in my education growing up and I am keen to hear from others about what is working well and what needs to be changed to support the next generation of young deaf people.

For myself when I was in secondary school, I did not know how and where to ask for support so, that is something that I want to work with other deaf young people on. We need to be able to have that outlet to share what our experiences have been in the past and the influence that has on our current circumstances – whether that is positive or negative.

If you have the time or if you know of anyone who could take part please do use or share this link to fill out the questionnaire – https://redcap.slms.ucl.ac.uk/surveys/?s=TT8HRX4HF8

If you would like more information on the study please email me at: emma.reilly.20@ucl.ac.uk