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Libby’s PhD is a collaboration with UK Deaf Sport and England Athletics and is supervised by Dr Vicky Gottwald, lecturer in sport and exercise science and Dr Gavin Lawrence, senior lecturer in sport and exercise science. 

Libby explains, “I was born deaf, so I have had to overcome adversity with regards to communication, social inclusion and other barriers my entire life. Since becoming older, I realised the extent of the inequalities faced by the deaf community and felt like I had to do something to change this.

“My PhD aims to inform the development of a standardised starting system that will enhance the equality for deaf athletes in sport. Currently there is no explicit performance pathway or standardised starting system in place for deaf athletes, hindering the accessibility and provision for deaf athletes, thus contradicting the drive towards an egalitarian society.”

Dr Vicky Gottwald, said, “It’s great to have Libby raising awareness of deaf sport through her work and fantastic that the project has such great potential impact for what is an underrepresented group in elite sport. Understanding more about how reaction times vary between hearing and deaf athletes when using different types of starting stimuli will help us to identify any performance inequalities and subsequently make the sport fairer and attract more deaf athletes.”

Dr Gavin Lawrence adds, “This work has real potential to change the landscape of equality within sport. Having a standardised starting system that neither unfairly benefits and disadvantages deaf and hearing athletes will allow the widening of the talent pool and further reduce barriers to entry into sport”.