John Cradden reports on a change in approach to deaf literacy that is currently paying dividends.

A statewide organisation based in Dublin has been making a significant contribution towards dealing with the legacy of an education system that has resulted in lower than average rates of literacy among many deaf adults in the State.

Link Up is an offshoot of the National Adult Literacy Association (NALA) that delivers literacy classes specifically for deaf and hard-of-hearing adults throughout the State.

Since it was established in 1998 (initially as a pilot project of the EU Women's Education Initiative), the organisation has been inundated with requests for literacy classes among deaf adults.

The organisation, with the help of the Irish Deaf Society, recently won State funding for a five-year period, during which it aims to help up to 250 deaf adults improve their literacy.

"Not only was this a great step forward for adult education in the deaf community, but it was also a recognition of the superiority of education of deaf people through their first language - Irish Sign Language," says manager Stephen Bates.

The issue of how best to deliver primary and second- level education to deaf and hard-of-hearing people has long been a sensitive area. Indeed, the Minister for Education has established a new advisory committee to review the current range of educational support services available to students.

This committee, together with the agreement to fund the Link Up project, is being interpreted as growing recognition that the delivery of education for the deaf in many State institutions over the last 40-50 years was deeply flawed.

Since about the 1950s, education at State institutions for the deaf tended to focused heavily on teaching students to learn how to speak and banned the use of sign language in many of the classrooms.

It is a much-quoted statistic that deaf adults have an average reading age of eight. This may be an exaggeration, but it is widely agreed that the reading age is much lower than the average for the rest of the population.

There is evidence to suggest that the literacy abilities of deaf adults educated before the 1950s and 1960s were superior to the later generations because sign language was used in the classroom.

Just as conventional adult literacy programmes take a student-centred approach, LinkUp does the same, but with an extra twist. All the tutors are themselves deaf or hard of hearing. This is important to foster a positive "role model" environment. All the classes are taught through Irish Sign Language.

"Deaf students attending Link Up's classes feel this new experience of learning through their first language is their best education experience," says Bates.

In order to cater for increased demand, Link Up has recently completely training for 15 new tutors.

You can contact Link Up at linkupids@indigo.ie or tel 8828001