As spoken English was not the mother tongue or preferred language of many participants, the provision of interpreters fluent in BSL and ISL was an essential aspect of the project. The interpreter hired by the authors is highly qualified in BSL and ISL and is respected in the community. All participants were encouraged to communicate in the language of their choice. Schwartz conducted all interviews in BSL while Elder took notes and asked follow-up questions. It is important to note that the elder is familiar with ASL, but does not know or speak BSL or ISL fluently. As Elder is not fluent in either language, the interpreter expressed the participants` responses. Is it also appropriate to describe the deaf world as a group of people with disabilities? We do not ask whether deaf people really have a disability, because it is not a fact: disability, like ethnicity, is a social construct, not a fact of life, although it is a property of these constructions that they deceptively appear as a fact of life. For example, the social problem of alcoholism is obvious: many Americans suffer from alcoholism; There are specially trained people to help them (alcohol counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists and others) and special facilities to treat them, such as detoxification centres. However, this understanding of alcoholism dates back to the second half of the 20th century. In the first half, the temperance movement characterized excessive drinking as voluntary, and the movement promoted prohibition rather than treatment. With the transition of alcoholism from illegal (and immoral) behaviour to illness, there was a need for medical research and treatment, halfway houses, infirmaries, ambulances and specialized hospitals (Gusfield, 1982).

Nowhere is the notion that a standard of “reasonable accommodation” is met by using written notes instead of a sign language interpreter. In four cases examined by the Commission, which resulted in a positive decision in favour of the deaf complainant, the concept of “reasonable accommodation” was hardly criticised or analysed. These cases are: Donna McDonald v. Newry Credit Union (workplace harassment); Holly Lane vs Aware Defeat Depression; Mairead Boyce v. Western Health & Social Care Trust (refusal of placement in a medical facility); and Paula Clark and Robert Skelly v. Department for Social Development (ECNI, 2018a). As a visiting scholar who studied Deaf people`s access to the health system in Northern Ireland in the spring of 2015, Schwartz heard a common refrain from his deaf participants: they could not get effective access to their lawyer (lawyer) because he refused to provide the deaf client with a sign language interpreter free of charge, This would allow for effective communication between the client and the lawyer.