Direitos Linguísticos dos Surdos nas Universidades Federais do Rio Grande do Sul: reflexões sobre a Implementação do Artigo 13 do Decreto 5.626

Abstract

The following Thesis investigates the impact of Article 13 of Decree No. 5,626 in Federal Universities of Rio Grande do Sul, with an emphasis on the promotion and protection of linguistic rights of Deaf people in educational settings. The general objective of the study was to assess how do universities implement the legal guidelines when it comes to teaching Portuguese as a second language to Deaf people, as established by the referred Decree. To achieve this goal, the following research has adopted a qualitative methodology, based on the documental analysis of thirteen pedagogical projects from the courses of Pedagogy, Speech Therapy and Languages Portuguese from the six Federal Universities of Rio Grande do Sul: UFCSPA, UFSM, UFPEL, UFRGS, UNIPAMPA and FURG. The results of the analysis have shown that the implementation of Article 13 still faces significant challenges in the investigated universities, showing a variation in their understanding and application of the guidelines. It was found that only FURG, having the the module “Teaching of Portuguese as a second language for Deaf students and Deaf Literature”, and UFRGS, with the module “Reflections about Portuguese as an Additional Language for Deaf people”, are aligned with Article 13 of Decree No. 5,626. Furthermore, although some universities may have incorporated modules that discuss Portuguese as a second language, the lack of uniformity in the curricula and the lack of specific resources reveal that Portuguese as a second language is mostly directed to foreign students, not considering Deaf students. It is believed that the main reason for not offering the module “Portuguese as a second language” is that, unlike the Libras modules, no deadlines nor minimum mandatory percentages were established for their inclusion in academic curricula. Therefore, to guarantee the protection of linguistics rights of Deaf people and to promote a truly inclusive education, a continuous effort of curricular adaptation is needed, as well as training of qualified personnel that work in Education to teach Portuguese as a second language.