TABLE 1.

Themes, sub-themes and key issues of the study.

Theme	Sub-theme	Key issues
Perceptions and construction of deaf identities	Culturally deaf identity	Positive attitude to deaf condition Resistance to deaf based discrimination Empowerment by advocacy groups
	Culturally hearing identity	Frustration and/or anger at being deaf Loneliness and withdrawal from the public Pretence to belonging to the hearing world
	Bicultural identity	Desire to belong to both deaf and hearing worlds Very active in NGO and other civil society work
Experiences of deafness in a multicultural environment	Culture	Unsuitable’ Uganda sign language gestures Difficulty in adopting some Uganda sign language alphabet to the local languages spoken in their localities.
	Religion	Muslim women forbidden from finger spelling certain Uganda sign language words Arabic literature incompatible with Uganda sign language
	Gender	Discrimination against female deaf persons Rejection by prospective hearing male suitors
	Family	Lack of social support Polygamy and extended family systems
	Linguistic diversity	Many dialects complicate use of Uganda sign language