Beyond Language Policies: Deaf Protagonism, Brazilian Sign Language and Deaf Education

This paper presents the linguistic plan for Brazilian Sign Language, also known as Libras (Língua Brasileira de Sinais), which has an impact on deaf education in Brazil. A set of actions for the recognition of Libras has been established given the development of research in the field of deaf education, sign language linguistics and sign language translation and interpretation through the involvement of the National Deaf Education and Integration Federation, FENEIS (Federação Nacional de Educação e Integração de Surdos). Documents created by the deaf and scientific publications have contributed to establishing a law that recognises Libras, as well as political actions that legitimise deaf education. However, some educational policies prevent the deaf from access to education. This paper presents the actions that contributed to the recognition of sign language and deaf education and discusses the educational policies that make deaf access to education difficult given their linguistic and cultural specificities. It also presents the subsidies associated with the bilingual linguistic policy in deaf education – Libras and Portuguese –, thus, indicating the need for the implementation and application of Libras and Portuguese teaching in Brazil. In addition, an analysis of the developments of this public policy is presented, considering some crucial concepts that potentially influence decisions and referrals based on linguistic policies and on the rights of deaf people, which are based on the concepts of‘ diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ (Kusters, et al., 2015).