Sixty per cent of Canadian adults have hearing problems and many are unaware of it. Approximately 382,700 are deaf, with another 3,827,000 being hard of hearing. Others have high-frequency hearing loss and/or tinnitus, a persistent ringing sound in the ears that may worsen over time.

Tracey Bone is an associate professor in the U of M’s faculty of social work who conducts research in mental health and deaf studies.

Bone’s connection to the Deaf community is personal. Her older brother is deaf and uses sign language. Growing up, Bone’s family was advised to only communicate orally to her brother, rather than learn sign language. Her brother’s inability to communicate orally made this challenging.

“As the youngest of three siblings, I just realized I need to learn sign language, and so I did,” Bone said. “He and I communicate only through sign language. And so that really brought me into the Deaf community.”

Before joining the U of M’s faculty, Bone was a social worker for three decades, as well as a parole officer for the federal government. Parole officers work with individuals who have been released from prison, providing them with guidance and support to ensure their successful reintegration into society.

“Because I’m fluent in sign language, if there was a deaf person that was released to Winnipeg, then I supervised them,” she said. “I saw not only their experiences in trying to manage as a former inmate, but also the mental health challenges that associated with that.”

In a presentation at the Canadian Criminal Justice Association’s 2022 conference, Bone examined audism in the prison and release systems. Audism is the idea that an individual is superior based on their ability to hear and is often a cause of discrimination faced by the Deaf community.

In the justice system, audism can manifest with a lack of sign language interpreters in programming and case management, not accommodating sign language requests or assuming a deaf individual can lip read/write, using staff or family to interpret and lowering expectations for a deaf individual’s work, education or program completion.

Bone included the importance of deaf-friendly room layouts. This often involves participants seated in a circle, rather than traditional rows of seats, as it allows a deaf person to see everyone’s faces and read their lips. Sign language interpreters are also necessary to facilitate communication between those who communicate orally and those who communicate through sign language.

Bone also examined mental health in the Deaf community. A study she completed with Manitoba Possible — an organization that provides a range of services to Manitobans with disabilities and their families — looked at deaf people’s experiences accessing health and mental health services.

Her team interviewed 47 members of the Deaf community and asked them if they knew of any resources for deaf or hard of hearing individuals who were struggling with feelings of sadness, anger or an inability to cope. Seventy-five per cent of them reported that they did not.

“The reality is there are very few resources,” Bone said. “There are very few mental health resources available to deaf, hard of hearing and deaf-blind individuals.”

Following Bone’s attendance at a two-day conference held at the Manitoba School for the Deaf, she was contacted separately by two women explaining that they or their deaf child had been discriminated against when seeking medical care at a local hospital after experiencing suicidal thoughts. The hospital had refused to provide sign language interpreters, stating that none were available.

The situation had left both feeling powerless. The decision to refuse sign language interpreters for the delivery of medical care to a deaf person is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Bone requested a meeting between the women and the provincial minister for family services to discuss the incidents, and the request was granted without hesitation. The meeting was successful, and the next day, the provincial minister issued an internal memo to medical services reminding them of the rights of deaf people to access sign language interpreters for medical care.

“These relationships and partnerships [with the Deaf community] have extended my knowledge and appreciation and enriched both my personal and professional life in so many ways,” Bone wrote in an article detailing the incident. “Our continued partnerships remain today.”