Kate Rowley (Principal Investigator)
Meet Kate Rowley, DCAL Deputy Director and lead on the tactile language project, exploring deafblind communication through community-led research.
I’m Kate (sign name + fingerspell). I am a white woman, medium build, with long, wavy hair and a white streak at the front. I am wearing a short black t-shirt with faded black jeans. My background is blue.
Hello! I’m Kate Rowley.
I am the Deputy Director of the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) and a lecturer at University College London (UCL). I have been working in research on deafness and sign language since 2007. Most of my work has focused on how deaf children develop sign language.
Over the years, I have helped to create sign language assessment tools, studied language disorders in signers, and more recently explored how skills in British Sign Language (BSL) link to reading skills in English. You can learn more about my research on deafness and sign language on my UCL profile page.
Why tactile sign languages?
I am the lead researcher for the tactile language project.
My interest in tactile sign languages began a few years ago at a deaf academics’ conference. I watched a presentation by Johanna Mesch, a deaf professor from Stockholm, Sweden. She talked about her research documenting deafblind people using tactile Swedish Sign Language. I was immediately fascinated. I knew this kind of research was important and could make a real difference for the deafblind community. More knowledge and awareness can help reduce barriers.
A community-led project
I am fully committed to making sure this project is led by the community, with deafblind people at its centre.
To support this:
Our research team includes deaf and deafblind researchers. Many of us, including me, have deafblind friends, relatives, and colleagues, so this work is deeply meaningful to us. We will create an advisory board of deafblind people and experts who will guide the project from start to finish. Before we begin any data collection, we will run two focus groups with deafblind community members. These will help us decide on the best research methods and the best ways to share information about the project.
Working together
I am really looking forward to working with all of you. I know I will learn a great deal throughout this journey, and I welcome your thoughts, advice, and guidance. My hope is that this project will bring real, positive change and help build a foundation for future research led by deafblind researchers.