JUSTISIGNS Project Wins European Language Label For Improving Access To Justice
Posted on: 08 November 2017
If you were a deaf person, who uses a sign language, and you had to report a crime, how would you do it? How would you engage with emergency services? How would you access victim supports? If you were a suspect, how would the police effectively interview you? If a sign language interpreter is provided – are they trained? Are they experienced in working in legal settings? Will the police caution be available to you in your national sign language? If you go to court, will your testimony be video recorded? Or will the spoken language interpretation become the record? If no video record is available, how might you raise an appeal if you are concerned about the quality of the interpretation?
These are some of the questions that Trinity’s Centre for Deaf Studies (School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences) and project partners addressed with their award winning JUSTISIGNS Project, which looked at how Europeans who are deaf, sign language users, engage with the justice systems in their respective countries, and particularly, with police forces.
JUSTISIGNS was coordinated by the Centre for Deaf Studies, its Director, Professor Lorraine Leeson, worked as the Irish PI and was developed with Leonardo da Vinci programme funding from the European Commission. The partnership comprised deaf and hearing experts, researchers and interpreter practitioners from organisations across Europe, including:
- Interesource Group (Ireland) Limited (Management Coordinator);
- European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (efsli), Belgium;
- European Legal Interpreters’ & Translators’ Association (EULITA), Belgium;
- KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts Campus Antwerp, Belgium;
- University of Applied Sciences of Special Needs Education, Switzerland; and
- Heriot Watt University, Scotland.
Each partner engaged with their national/regional police force, local Deaf communities, and interpreters, to explore key issues that arise in day to day engagement. Empirical data led to the development and piloting of training materials that have been rolled out across Europe and shared internationally at www.justisigns.com.
JUSTISIGNS was one of five projects awarded the 2017 European Language Label for innovative ways of teaching and learning languages.
The Centre for Deaf Studies is the only place in Ireland offering a route to a Bachelor in Deaf Studies, with specialisms in ISL teaching, ISL/English interpreting and Deaf Studies.