09/21/2024 – 9:30
Since April 24, 2002, by Law 10.436, Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) has been recognized as a legal means of communication and expression in the country. Therefore, its teaching in schools, not only for deaf students, but also for other students, teachers and staff, would be a fundamental element of integration. Specialized educators are unanimous in this opinion, but there is still a long way to go towards this inclusion.
Keyla Ferrari Lopes, a pedagogue specializing in Special Education in Libras, believes that it is high time that Libras teaching be adopted as a mandatory subject, which would require a change in legislation. “In the medium term, the entire school community would be fluent, which would guarantee true inclusion,” she says.
She notes that, at many times, deaf people want to communicate without the help of an interpreter. “We also realize that the interpreter’s role is still much greater than that of teachers,” she says.
Keyla admits, however, that she has seen progress due to the 2002 law. “What needs to happen is a bilingual society.” In some courses, such as Pedagogy and Physical Education, the Libras program is already mandatory – and it is optional in courses in the Health area. “Teaching Libras to deaf children and their parents is essential.”
According to her, the difficulty in learning Libras is equivalent to that of any language, with the only difference being that it is a visual-motor language, with a different grammar. “We hearing people think like hearing people, while deaf people think visually,” she explains. For her, the first thing to do in the school environment is to train teachers and staff.
Rafael Cavichiolli, who is hearing impaired, is a Libras teacher at Colégio Rio Branco in São Paulo. The school began this work 12 years ago and since then has faced a constant challenge to establish Libras as the first language and Portuguese as the second language for the deaf population.
According to Cavichioli, the first step was to adapt the use of Libras to the curriculum structure, since Libras teaching is not mandatory in schools. “Within a few months, hearing students were also able to use Libras, through interaction with their deaf classmates.” The school structure, however, “still has many obstacles.” “Segregation is not the way forward. We have reports from countries like the United States where this is already very strong.”
The same goes for Braille. According to Benedito João Bertola, president of the Louis Braille Cultural Center in Campinas, both people who have acquired and those who were born with visual impairment need to learn Braille. “There are special classes in schools. But not all of them. And not all special education teachers know Braille.”
Bertola emphasizes the encouragement of writing. “Braille has 6 points and 63 combinations. You can make all the combinations. The difficulty of learning varies from person to person. You need to develop your sense of touch a lot.”
Only 25.6% of people with disabilities completed high school
Inclusive education is understood as the principle that guides all actions in educational systems and schools, from management in its different areas to the methodologies and materials used in the classroom. The population with disabilities in Brazil is estimated at 18.6 million people aged 2 or over, which corresponds to 8.9% of this age group.
The data are from the People with Disabilities module of the 2022 Continuous PNAD. The topic has already been investigated in other IBGE surveys, the most recent being the 2010 Demographic Census and the 2013 and 2019 National Health Survey (PNS). The profile of people with disabilities was more female (10%) than male (7.7%) and slightly higher among black people (9.5%), compared to 8.9% of mixed-race people and 8.7% of white people. The Northeast, with 5.8 million people in this condition, was the region with the highest percentage (10.3%), followed by the South (8.8%), Central-West (8.6%), North (8.4%) and Southeast (8.2%).
The survey showed that the percentage of people with disabilities increases with age. In 2022, 47.2% of people with disabilities were 60 years of age or older. Among people without disabilities, this age group represented 12.5%. This pattern is repeated in all major regions, with the South and Southeast regions standing out, where more than half of people with disabilities were elderly.
In the third quarter of 2022, the illiteracy rate for people with disabilities was 19.5%, while among people without disabilities this rate was 4.1%. Only 25.6% of people with disabilities had completed at least high school, while 57.3% of people without disabilities had this level of education, which reveals that inclusive education is still a challenge in Brazil.
According to the MEC, of the total enrollments, 53.7% are students with intellectual disabilities (952,904). Next are students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), with 35.9% (636,202). Next, there are people with physical disabilities (163,790), low vision (86,867), hearing impairment (41,491), high abilities or giftedness (38,019), deafness (20,008), blindness (7,321) and deafblindness (693). Finally, 88,885 students are reported with two or more disabilities combined.
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