Deaf Studies

The Centre for Deaf Studies at Trinity affords students the opportunity to develop insights into, and genuine appreciation for the culture, contributions, and contemporary issues related to Deaf people in Ireland and worldwide. The undergraduate programme is the only one of its kind in Ireland. Irish Sign Language (ISL) is the indigenous language of the Deaf Community in Ireland and is the working language at the Centre for Deaf Studies.

ISL is a language like any other language, but it happens to be expressed in a different modality – sign languages use signs while spoken languages use sounds to express words. There are many different sign languages in the world in the same way as there are different spoken languages.ISL is the third language of Ireland, recognized in the Irish Sign Language Act (2017). It is also one of the many signed languages recognised by European Institutions and is recognised along with British Sign Language in Northern Ireland. During this four-year course, students develop fluency in ISL. As a student, you may choose to specialise as an ISL/English Interpreter or an ISL teacher or to focus on Deaf Studies. Students entering the Deaf Studies programme will explore a range of educational, social, cultural, linguistic, and psychological issues and their application to Deaf people, as individuals, as a community, and as a linguistic and cultural minority.