A sign language and deaf studies academic from the University of Central Lancashire has been recognised as one of the most influential disabled people in the UK.
Nick Palfreyman, Director of the International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies (iSLanDS) at the University, won the Education and Research category in the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 Awards, the UK’s leading recognition awards for disabled leaders, trailblazers and change makers.
The Education and Research category celebrates people who develop new learning pathways to share their knowledge and research with wider society to improve awareness and increase diversity.
"My deaf colleagues in the Global South work much harder than I do to challenge attitudes and raise awareness, and receive a lot less recognition. I take this opportunity to highlight the amazing advocacy work that they do."
— Nick Palfreyman, Director of the International Institute for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies
Nick, 41, won the category and also made it into the Top 10 in this year’s Disability Power 100 list.
Both accolades were for his work with deaf communities in the Global South over the last 17 years, where he works with often marginalised communities to research and record their own sign languages.
Nick, who can write in English, Indonesian, Italian and French, and use British Sign Language, Indonesian Sign Language and International Sign, along with a smattering of Japanese Sign Language, has been deaf from birth and also lives with vertigo.
He said: “My deaf colleagues in the Global South work much harder than I do to challenge attitudes and raise awareness, and receive a lot less recognition.
“I take this opportunity to highlight the amazing advocacy work that they do. I'd also like to recognise the way the University has supported the research we have been doing with iSLanDS since 2007.”
Currently, iSLanDS has four projects that involve more than 20 deaf people in India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. Together, they conduct research on sign languages that are not well documented and discover more about the experiences and needs of deaf communities.