UK Disability History Month: Accessibility and Archives: Engaging with the Deaf Community using the Archive resources of Historic Environment Scotland

In this blog for Disability History Month 2023, Neil Fraser introduces Historic Environment Scotland and its learning from the opportunity to host Ruth Donaldson, a placement student from the Deaf Studies course at Heriot Watt University.

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) is the lead public body set up to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment. We make available a vast range of information on archaeological, industrial and maritime sites and buildings across Scotland. The material can be accessed in person at our search room and library in Edinburgh, Canmore (canmore.org.uk) is the online catalogue for the material we care for. We also manage the Scran (scran.ac.uk) online service which contains digitised records from museum, galleries and archives throughout Scotland. Scran aims to provide educational access to digital materials representing Scotland’s material culture and history. 

In 2021 we were approached by a colleague to see if the Archive could support a student placement from the Deaf Studies course at Heriot Watt University. HES already has a British Sign Language Plan and several initiatives such as BSL tours of our properties in care. However, within our archive service, there was less experience of engaging with deaf users.

Meetings with the student, Ruth Donaldson, and her tutor were held to discuss possible areas of work to benefit both parties. Ruth visited the Archive and was able to view the original material we hold relating to locations associated with deaf history and the digital records from newspaper archives on Scran which depict the deaf people who used those buildings.

We agreed on a programme to improve the quality of the records we hold on Donaldson’s School in Edinburgh with Ruth starting her research in January 2022. Initially we discussed a wider scope of locations associated with the deaf community but given the 12-week length of Ruth’s placement, we decided it was best to focus on one location. Deaf children were taught at the school until 2008 and it remains an iconic building associated with the deaf community throughout Scotland. Donaldson's Hospital was founded by James Donaldson, a printer and bookseller in the West Bow, in 1841-51 for the education of poor children. From 1938 it was used for the education of the hearing impaired. The building was designed by William Playfair and is of a palatial scale in a grand Elizabethan / Jacobean style. Queen Victoria opened the building and was said to have remarked that it was more impressive than many of her own palaces.

Between the rich material we hold relating to the building through the years and the social history from Scran documenting teachers and former pupils, we knew we had a good starting point. We also recognised that the caption records we held were often quite basic and certainly lacked the valuable insight that members of the deaf community could provide. Through this work we wanted to better represent deaf histories in our resources and increase the accessibility of our material to the deaf community. We hoped to do this by adding BSL content directly to our building record for Donaldson’s. For Ruth it was important she developed her BSL language skills by engaging directly with the community. To achieve this, she liaised with Deaf History Scotland and Deaf Action. She was able to quickly introduce her work by attending existing deaf community meetings in Edinburgh and Coatbridge. At the meetings she displayed copies of archives images and invited feedback and comment. The response was overwhelming with attendees keen to share memories both good & bad and suggesting other contacts for Ruth to speak with. After this great start we were able to quickly update caption records on Scran to better reflect the richness of data we received.

To create the BSL resources to be added, Ruth then arranged a series of interviews using British Sign Language with former students at the school. These interviews were recorded both in person and online as word spread to former pupils who no longer lived in Scotland. The resulting video files have been added to the National Record we care for and available to our users for years to come. From the interviews, Ruth identified four themes which appeared strongly – the school buildings, communication, famous visitors and sports.

The stories she gathered record periods of time where the use of audio technology was seen as a solution to deafness and BSL was banned in the classroom. Students got round this by lifting their desk lids and using them as cover! We heard emotional accounts of young children boarding at the school from 6 years of age and only returning home at holidays. Sport was repeatedly highlighted as a great source of enjoyment where pupils could escape pressure to write and speak in English in a relaxed environment. The school enjoyed great sporting success with the basketball team competing in the Scottish Schools League and one former pupil going on to represent Scotland at senior level. Another interviewee vividly remembered the stressed state of her teacher and being told to tidy the classroom. The reason was an imminent visit from the Prime Minister John Major! 

From the outset, we planned with communications colleagues how the outputs of this work would be shared to gain maximum exposure.  A blog on the history of the school was created by Ruth and at the end of the placement an event was held with Deaf Action where Ruth shared her work with the deaf community. Ruth’s blog went on to become our most read of 2022 and is a great record of all her hard work and commitment to the placement. You can read it here - https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2022/04/donaldsons-school/

For our work in the HES Archive, the placement and experience working with Ruth has helped us shape a template for future engagement with communities we have traditionally found harder to reach.

Neil Fraser

Email: neil.fraser@hes.scot

Contributions to this series are welcomed.  If you are interested in contributing to a similar post, in the first instance, contact diversityandinclusion@archives.org.uk .