Creative biographical responses to epistemological and methodological challenges in generating a deaf life story telling instrument

Biographical research on life story telling of deaf signers, a vulnerable and linguistically diverse group, is relatively young. Deaf life narratives have recently been considered as means for strengthening identity and enhancing well-being. Although cultural practices of signed storytelling enable deaf adults to generate coherent life narratives, there have been few efforts to develop biographical methods and models based on these practices. Drawing on the common ground of narrative inquiry and narrative therapy and the potential of life stories to positively change the relationship between people and their environment, this article presents a pioneering interdisciplinary biographical study on the praxis of ‘deaf life story work’ with migrants and refugees in the UK. A multilingual and multimodal instrument for deaf life story telling has been developed which employs a range of visual methods, including digital and signed storytelling, photographs, drawings, collages, visual timelines and puppets. Research into deaf life story work facilitates methodological and epistemological reflections on deaf perspectives in biographical research and culturally mediated narrative learning, and provides insight into cross-language issues. It also highlights marginalised epistemologies and the impact of validating life stories and deaf knowledge, while touching on a shared sense of generativity and reflexivity in the research space.