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Deafblind Services Since 1928: Interpreting the Past to Inform the Future

Doctoral Training Grant Funding Information

This funding model includes a 36-month funded PhD Studentship, set in-line with UK Research and Innovation values. For 2025/6, this will be £20,780 per year. The tax-free stipend will be paid monthly. This PhD Studentship also includes a Full-Time Home Fee Scholarship for up to 3 years. The funding is subject to your continued registration on the research degree, making satisfactory progression within your PhD, as well as attendance on and successful completion of the Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice. 

International applicants are reminded, that it if they are successful following interview, they are liable to pay the fee difference between the Home and International Tuition Fee Rate. The tuition fees for new doctoral researchers are listed here.

All applicants will receive the same stipend irrespective of fee status.

Application Closing Date:

Midday (UK Time) on Wednesday 17th September 2025 for a start date of 2nd February 2026.

How to Apply

To apply, please follow the below steps:

  1. Complete the BCU Online Application Form.
  2. Complete the Doctoral Studentship Proposal Form in full, ensuring that you quote the project ID. You will be required to upload your proposal in place of a personal statement on the BCU online application form.
  3. Upload two references to your online application form (at least one of which must be an academic reference).
  4. Upload your qualification(s) for entry onto the research degree programme. This will be Bachelor/Master’s certificate(s) and transcript(s).
  5. International applicants must also provide a valid English language qualification. Please see the list of English language qualifications accepted here. Please check the individual research degree course page for the required scores.

Frequently Asked Questions

To help support you to complete your application, please consult the frequently asked questions below:

Project title: Deafblind Services Since 1928: Interpreting the Past to Inform the Future

Project Lead: Dr Peter Simcock - Associate Professor of Social Work and Centre Lead: Deafblind UK Centre for Education and Research

Project ID: DBUK2:  46121207

Project description:

Deafblind UK is a national charity supporting people with combined sight and hearing loss across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It began in 1928 as the ‘National Deaf Blind Helpers League’, founded by deafblind people and their carers to provide mutual support. In 1929, it launched Braille Rainbow, the first magazine for deafblind people, which is still published today in various accessible formats under the name Open Hand.

By the 1960s, Deafblind UK had created the UK’s first independent living complex for deafblind individuals—a service that continues today, now also supporting those with additional needs. In the 1980s, following publication of two key reports that shaped services for deafblind people, Deafblind UK co-led the ‘Yes to Access’ campaign with the charity Sense. This campaign played a major role in the creation of the first statutory guidance on social care for deafblind people in England in 2001.

While Sense began with a focus on congenitally deafblind children and now supports a broader group, Deafblind UK remains focused on the needs of all deafblind people—regardless of age or cause.

As the organisation prepares to celebrate its centenary, it is important to reflect on a new era of possibilities and challenges: an expected increase in the deafblind population; advances in assistive technologies; and new legislative frameworks, described as fundamental to improvements in social care for deafblind people, yet remaining inconsistently implemented across the country.  To inform planning for these future developments, it is important to understand the history of service provision for deafblind people, including, but not limited to, 100 years of service from Deafblind UK.  This PhD project offers the opportunity to examine the history of service provision for deafblind people, focusing on the UK within an international context. Candidates may come from a range of academic disciplines and adopt different approaches to this examination, but should determine how the past should inform future planning: what lessons can be learnt.  Possible areas of investigation include deafblind people’s own understanding of their history, and examination of the development of different approaches to support for this population, such as community development rather than traditional disability support (see, for example, Hallinan et al., 2025).

Anticipated findings and contribution to knowledge:

There is a particular paucity of research in the field of deafblindness, particularly UK based research, and the field has been described as being in its infancy (Dammeyer, 2015).  Consequently, the impairment is often much misunderstood; this includes by professionals in education, health and social care, policy makers, family, and deafblind people themselves (Simcock et al., 2022).Deafblind people are often excluded from research, decision-making processes, development programmes and participation in political and public life (Watharow & Wayland, 2022; Simcock & Wittich, 2019; Jaiswal et al., 2018), contrary to the international goal that ‘no one is left behind’, which underpins the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  The dearth of research in the field contributes to the invisibility of deafblind people in social welfare policy and practice, and the fact that they are underserved by health and social care services (Simcock, 2020; Roy et al. 2018, WorldFederation of the Deafblind 2018). It is therefore unsurprising that there have been calls for better data and further research, in order to inform policy and practice to advance deafblind people’s rights (Simcock & Wittich, 2019).  This PhD project will respond to these calls, providing an opportunity for an in-depth examination of the history of deafblind services over the last 100 years and illumination of the lessons that can be learnt from the past in order to inform and plan for future deafblind services in an era of new possibilities and challenges.

Person specification:

Required:

  • An Honours degree, that includes an independent research project, in a relevant discipline from a recognised university in the UK or comparable university overseas.
  • Clear understanding of disability and/or social care/welfare research. 
  • Commitment to inclusive, participatory and/or co-produced research.

Desirable:

  • A Master’s degree in a relevant discipline from a recognised university in the UK or comparable university overseas
  • Experience of practice in or engagement with deafblind/ sensory impairment or disability settings.

Overseas applicants:

International applicants must also provide a valid English language qualification, such as International English Language Test System (IELTS) or equivalent with an overall score of 6.5 with no band below 6.0.  

Contact:

If you have any questions or need further information, please use the contact details below: 

- For enquiries about the project content, please contact: Dr Peter Simcock peter.simcock@bcu.ac.uk

- For enquiries about the application process, please contact: research.admissions@bcu.ac.uk