I have no doubt that a deaf person striving for a high level qualification will find more obstacles in their path. That's probably part of the explanation as to why the figures for deaf PhD holders are so low in comparison to hearing PhD holders.
I assume the figure of 37 only records those who achieved their PhDs as deaf students, and not those who hold PhDs who later became deaf. Also, do these figures only cover people who are profoundly deaf, or do they also include the hard-of-hearing?
It's just that 37 seems like such a low number, it is necessary to know how big a group of people the researcher is looking at. The numbers of deaf people who have become deaf in later life would skew he figures, moreso because older people are less likely to hold PhDs anyway. One of the quotes you give says:
* No figure for total number of users; up to 30,000 deaf people in the UK have been educated via BSL (1986). -- (Gallaudet Encyclopedia, vol.3 p.62.)
Which would seem to indicate the base figure of how many people are in the potential pool of deaf students who could earn or could have earnt a PhD. (Though the figure is quite old.) That would make people who are or were 'deaf students' to be 0.05% of the UK population, which is think is the percentage that DoDo gave.
According to Social Trends 38 from the ONS, 16,250 people were awarded doctorates in 2005/06. This is one for every 3,692 people in the general population (all of whom we'll assume were students at some time or another). For the deaf population to equal that, there would have to be about 8 to 9 doctorates awarded to 'deaf students' every year.
But there is also a high comorbidity of 'additional educationally relevant conditions' among deaf people: Gallaudet 2006/07 Summary, Page 10. Similar conditions among the general population are about 10%, though the statistics do vary considerably. Which means that the percentage of deaf students which can be expected to be capable of PhD level study may be lower than the general population. Trying to factor in these differences also is pretty much impossible for me to do, but I think it will bring the number down to about 5 to 6 PhDs a year to be equal.
I've probably made some pretty egregious error or terrible assumption somewhere, I'm sure. Feel free to slaughter me. Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
My guess is that they include d/Deaf people who require additional forms of support such as interpreters, notetakers, radio aids and so on (whether this provision is made adequately or not).
My guess is that the number is higher than 37 simply because the researchers seem to find out about people via word of mouth and through deaf people knowing each other through social networks. You won't catch everybody that way.
As you allude to - poor access to education at primary, secondary and tertiary level will reduce the number of deaf people who are capable of studying to such a high level.
Given that there is no one definition of deaf/hard of hearing or any one method of collecting statistics on how many d/Deaf people and BSL users there are in the UK, your guess is as good as DoDo's is as good as anybody else's! Which in itself highlights a major gap in terms of tracking the outcomes and life chances of children who are born deaf or become deaf at a young age. Ad astra per aspera
