Background: Central to the Education For All policy framework (UNESCO, 1990) is the idea of promoting quality education through the concept and principles of inclusive education. In the context of post-Dakar 2000, inclusive education may be defined as a process of identifying any barriers within and around the school that hinder learning, and reducing or removing these barriers as part of a wider strategy to promote an inclusive society. Deaf bilingual practices are consistent with more inclusive and equitable practices in the education of Deaf children; however, the practice of Deaf bilingual programmes varies across the countries and within societies and it seems that there remain gross imbalances throughout the regions of the world. Spain has historically played a very active role in the provision of education for Deaf people, and has also been one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN, 2006).

Objective: To identify and tackle, from the point of view and participation of insiders, those internal and external factors around current existing Deaf bilingual practices in Spain which promote or prevent the processes through which more inclusive educational provision for Deaf children can be successfully implemented and good practice promoted.

Methods: Using a Participatory Action Research approach, a Facilitation Team consisting of three hearing university researchers and two members of the Spanish National Confederation of Deaf People selected 11 schools with leading Deaf bilingual initiatives for Deaf children and a regional department of education to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis using a nominal group process. Headteachers were contacted by post and asked to briefly describe their bilingual initiative in terms of the process and content of their experiences and to nominate two representatives of each school, one Deaf and one hearing, to take part in the analysis. To enable full access and on-going participation of Deaf participants, Spanish Sign Language translations and interpreting were used throughout the whole process.

Results: 17 Deaf and hearing professionals participated in the SWOT analysis. The main strengths of current Deaf bilingual practices in Spain pointed out the importance of participation and involvement of staff and others in the educational community. The primary weakness was found in the lack of a learning environment fully accessible to Deaf children. Notable opportunities included a growing acceptance of the bilingual and inclusive school concept by regional educational administrations and societal and parental changes towards bilingualism and sign language. The lack of official recognition of sign language was reported as a major threat.

Conclusions: Strategic planning provides a practical and pragmatic tool for understanding and decision-making in Deaf bilingual education. Awareness and understanding of these four internal and external inter-related factors are essential to assist educational communities to understand, practice and review ways of developing more inclusive practices within the current Deaf bilingual education school experiences in Spain, and can provide the starting point upon which policy-making and further research could be built. The study also highlights the importance of moving to a more participatory approach to research in the area of education of d/Deaf children.