Domestic Abuse, Deafness and the Problem of Legal Access in England and Wales
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14296/ac.v7i2.5893Abstract
This article examines Deaf survivors’ access to domestic abuse protection in England through a socio-legal analysis combining doctrinal frameworks (European Convention on Human Rights, Equality Act 2010, the Public Sector Equality Duty, and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021) with a national mapping of provision. It demonstrates how hearing-normative system design, interpreter-dependent access, and fragmented commissioning produce patterned and foreseeable exclusion, constituting institutional legal harm. By contrasting these systemic failures with Deaf-led, BSL-first services, the article shows that rights become exercisable when accessibility is embedded by design rather than delivered through reactive adjustment. It conceptualizes this recognition–realization gap as the Deaf Legal Illusion: formal recognition without reliable, substantive access in practice. The article concludes by identifying system-level reforms necessary to make equality exercisable and accountability enforceable.
Keywords: Deaf Legal Studies; domestic abuse; British Sign Language (BSL); Equality Act 2010; Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED); access to justice; institutional legal harm; socio-legal research; commissioning; interpreter-dependent systems.
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