'It Will Make More People Feel Included if They Can Talk to Them in Their First Language': The Experience of University Students with an Intellectual Disability Engaging in a Formal Irish Sign Language Course

Background: Opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to become bi/multilingual tend not to be widely available despite demonstrated linguistic and extralinguistic advantages associated with an ability to use more than one language. This article focuses on the learning experiences of students with intellectual disabilities in learning Irish Sign Language (ISL) as part of a university course tailored for students with intellectual disabilities. Methods: The sample consisted of six adults with intellectual disabilities who were enrolled in a full-time university programme in Ireland. Students were required to take a 12-week course entitled Language and Society, which included ISL lab sessions. A focus group was conducted asking questions that focused on the students' experience of taking part in a formalided ISL class. Findings: Three themes were generated in the analysis of the data: learning ISL, class design and implications of taking an ISL course. Findings showed that participants reflected critically on their learning experiences, their expectations of learning ISL, class content and social implications of learning ISL. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the potential of people with intellectual disabilities to be able to critically engage in second language learning.