What is deaf-centred cataloguing? An introduction to our Archives Revealed project

By Carrie Skinner, Project Archivist, Deaf History Scotland

We have recently begun an 18-month cataloguing project funded by The National Archives’ Archives Revealed programme. The project brings together the knowledge of the deaf community with professional archive methods, with the aim of creating an online catalogue that will make the Scottish Deaf Archive easier to explore and develop in the future. But the ambitions for our approach go well beyond creating a standard catalogue. This blog sets out what we think deaf-centred cataloguing could look like, and what it means to us in practice.

 

The Scottish Deaf Archive and its cataloguing challenges

The Scottish Deaf Archive holds around 80 collections of personal papers, committee records, photographs, films, trophies, club signage and early assistive technology. With more than 200 years of material relating to deaf history in Scotland, the archive is also unique in being deaf-led and community-based. This ensures that deaf histories are preserved and interpreted from deaf perspectives, reflecting deaf priorities, values and lived experience in ways that are accessible and culturally meaningful.

The archive had been partially catalogued by our volunteers over the last decade. The problem is that well-intentioned but ad-hoc advice produced a complex, jargon-heavy catalogue inconsistent with archival standards and challenging for volunteers to maintain, most of whom have BSL as a first language. A 2022 scoping report funded by the National Archives recommended professional cataloguing support and volunteer training.

 

Why standard cataloguing approaches don’t fit

The starting point for our cataloguing methodology is a straightforward but important observation: international cataloguing standards and controlled vocabularies were not designed with deaf communities in mind.

Archival standards are built around linear written languages, but deaf histories and the history of sign languages themselves are ephemeral, multi-dimensional and visual. Representing this rich heritage within the constraints of another language and culture is one of the central challenges we face.

Beyond language, the standards don’t necessarily reflect culturally deaf ways of organising and prioritising information. Catalogue descriptions may also repeat outdated or medicalised language without explanation, and controlled vocabularies compound this problem. Available terms sit within medical or disability frameworks, with nothing to describe deaf communities, identities, or cultural practices.

The result can be a narrowing of deaf history and representations that risk perpetuating misunderstandings and do not reflect how deaf people understand their own experiences and identities.

 

What deaf-centered cataloguing could look like

Our response to these challenges is to develop a cataloguing methodology that combines community knowledge and cultural understanding with archival standards. We are using ISAD(G) as the basis for our cataloguing standards, but applying it collaboratively and reflectively.

Through input and feedback sessions throughout the project, deaf community members will help shape what stories are told and how sensitive materials are named, shown, or protected. Working together, we will identify culturally important materials for more detailed description at file or item level, agree how historical language, including outdated or offensive terms, is handled, and ensure that deaf preferences and perspectives are made visible in the records through additional ISAD(G) fields.

To support accessibility and long-term volunteer involvement, we are producing a cataloguing handbook with plain English explanations of archival terminology and BSL translations, so that DHS volunteers can confidently maintain the catalogue going forward.

 

Sharing what we learn

We are committed to sharing what we develop back into the wider profession. Terms developed collaboratively with DHS volunteers will be submitted to UKAT and we also plan to contribute findings to Carissa Chew’s Inclusive Terminology Glossary. Beyond vocabulary submissions, we hope to share findings through sector publications and conference presentations, so that what we develop for the SDA can be of use to other archives that have collections related to deaf histories or with similar challenges in representing minority and community histories.

 

Sustainability and community ownership

Crucially, the new catalogue is designed to be sustainable beyond the lifetime of the funded project, so it can be confidently cared for by the Scottish deaf community long into the future. This means the cataloguing methodology and the handbook are being developed with DHS volunteers, not just delivered to them. Training sessions will be recorded so they can be used again by future volunteers.

 

Rather than focusing only on measurable targets, our project outputs focus on supporting community ownership of the Scottish Deaf Archive and creating ways for the community to take part in the project that are inspiring, meaningful and accessible. Some of the project work is technical but other parts are about the relationships, learning, and new ways of working together that will help the Scottish Deaf Archive grow in the future.

Welcome to Albany Street and 200 years of Scottish deaf history

By John A. Hay

Deaf Action is home to the Scottish Deaf Archive, and we’ve been based in this building on Albany Street since 2020, but the history of the building, is a long one going back to 1890. I first came here as a child for 2 years of Sunday School at Albany Deaf Church. I will guide you around the building now and talk about the 200-year history of Edinburgh’s Deaf Church.

 

The Earliest Days

The story starts not with a building, but with people finding one another. In the early 1800s, deaf people in Edinburgh gathered informally at a junction on the Royal Mile. A wealthy women, Elizabeth Burnett noticed these meetings happening even in cold weather, and realised deaf people had nowhere to meet. So in 1818 she met with the headmaster of a nearby deaf school to discuss this. The headmaster was a minister called Robert Kinniburgh and gladly offered a meeting space in the school on Sunday afternoons for deaf adults to gather.

Over a decade later, Matthew Robert Burns set up the world’s first deaf-led church services in Lady Stair’s Close at the end of the Royal Mile near the castle in May 1830.

The service was fully signed, rather than being interpreted through a hearing minister.

All that happened in 1830, over 200 years ago!

 

Finding a Home

From Lady Stair’s Close the congregation grew and moved between venues across the city. Starting at Rose Street, then Frederick Street, George Street, South Bridge Street and Brunswick Street.

Among them Alexander Blackwood, after whom the bar here is named after. He established the Edinburgh Benevolent Society for the Deaf & Dumb in 1835, now called Deaf Action.

The community continued to search for a building of their own. Eventually the Albany Deaf Church and Edinburgh Society bought a townhouse on Albany Street in 1889.

Eventually, in 1889 the Albany Deaf Church and Edinburgh Society bought 49 Albany Street for £900 and built a church at the final cost of £1,500 on the back green behind it, seating 150 people. The dedication service was held in December 1890, and the church officially opened on 17th April 1891.

 

A Line of Ministers

The church’s history is also about the ministers who led it. Rev. W. J. Hansell, appointed in 1878, went on to become the first ordained minister for deaf people in Scotland. He served a huge area in the East of Scotland stretching from the Tweed to the Tay. The ministry was passed on to Pastor D. Hume Roy, Rev. Edward Roberts, Rev. James W. Greig and Rev. George Smith. Smith was awarded an MBE in 1987 for his services to the Deaf community. He was followed by Rev. Malcolm Rew, and Rev. Richard Durno among others. Each brought their own contribution, from establishing a Sunday School, to founding a care home for elderly and infirm Deaf people at Castleview, to strengthening ties with the wider Church of Scotland.

By 1999, the congregation, now known as Albany Deaf Church, celebrated its 100th year in the Albany Street building, with a special service and a small exhibition of church materials in what is now our reception area.

 

Into the Present Day

As Edinburgh changed, the building and ways of life, so did the deaf church congregation. From 2001, services moved to a hearing church at Greenside along the London Road. Today deaf worship continues at the New Town Church on George Street every month. These are visible and deaf-led services with guide leaders. As well as monthly services, there are special services for occasions like Easter, Christmas and Remembrance Sunday which are interpreted and captioned.

Deaf Action’s own connection to this history runs deep too. Rosie Addis, who served as Chaplain to Albany Deaf Church, is Chair of Deaf Action Board of Trustees today.

From a handful of people gathering at a street corner in 1818, to a purpose-built church, to a modern, interpreted, accessible service in the heart of Edinburgh, this is a story of a community that has always found a way to worship together, on our own terms.

 

Want to find out more?

Join us for the Edinburgh Deaf Festival at Deaf Action for a free event to find out more about this fascinating history.

Edinburgh Deaf Church: 1818 to the Present

8th August, 12:30-2PM