Intersectional Inclusion for Deaf Learners: Moving Beyond General Comment No. 4 on Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities

This paper discusses the meaning of inclusive education for deaf learners in a way that acknowledges the diversity of learneridentities, and outlines problems with normative definitions of inclusive education as advanced by recent interpretations of Article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). This discussion calls on us to reconsider how the concepts of inclusion and segregation are understood in education for all learners with intersectional identities. We outline the legislative history of the CRPD and Article 24, show the active involvement of deaf advocacy organisations, and highlight contradictions with this history in the CRPD Committee’s recent General Comment No. 4 on Article 24. We provide examples of innovative models of inclusive education for deaf learners that provide an education in sign language and discuss the implications of these arguments for inclusive education as a whole.