معرفی
Rachel O'Neill is the Deaf Education Pathway Coordinator at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. She leads the Scottish Sensory Centre’s work on language policy and deaf education, focusing on bilingual approaches combining British Sign Language (BSL) and English. Her role includes supervising PhD students, designing inclusive curricula, and directing the MSc Inclusive Education program until 2018. O'Neill has held cross-sectoral roles, including co-editing Deafness & Education International (2014–2022) and advising parliamentary groups on deafness issues.
Her career spans 25 years in education, transitioning from classroom teaching to university research. Key research areas include deaf learners’ transitions to higher education, BSL policy impacts across Scotland and Wales, and literacy development in bilingual deaf students. O'Neill co-leads the READY longitudinal study tracking 500 UK deaf youths’ outcomes, funded by the National Deaf Children’s Society.
Grant-funded projects include the Harmonised Impact Acceleration Account (2024–2025) on accessible learning tools and a Nuffield Foundation study on deaf students’ achievement (2009–2014). She collaborates internationally, notably with South African and Brazilian researchers on bilingual education frameworks. O'Neill advocates for policy alignment between legislation and classroom practice, emphasizing deaf community involvement in educational decision-making.
- Education: Extensive secondary/further education teaching experience before joining academia in 2006
- Affiliations: British Association for Applied Linguistics, Scottish Education Research Association
- Labs/Teams: Scottish Sensory Centre, EdSign Lectures Collaboration
