Representation of deaf people in Brazilian newspaper and magazine materials

Abstract

Deaf struggles for the right of self-representation not as disabled/handicapped people, but subjects with a particular culture who have Libras as their mother tongue, are very recent in Brazil. They have conquered the federal law no. 10.436/ 2002 recognizing the use of the Sign Language (LIBRAS stands for ‘Língua Brasileira de Sinais’, Brazilian Sign Language). Their history is marked by struggles against discrimination and in different standards of education; where deafness is clinically taken in terms of lacking of hearing, development of verbality, articulation of words, etc. This struggle is also related to naming styles: so deaf people want to be called ‘deaf people’, rather than deaf-and-dumb, which shows them as subjects without communication, and not as hearing impaired people, a derogatory clinical word. Besides, the language called LIBRAS is mistaken for ‘gestures’, ‘language’, ‘mimic’. In this paper, we have focused on print media, which is important for representations people make of deaf people. We have analysed twenty-nine materials and ads from different Brazilian newspapers and magazines from 2006 to 2006 with news or information about deaf people. We have investigated the styles of naming deaf people (hearing impaired people, deaf-and-dumb, deaf), the kind of reference to the Sign Language (sign language, language, gestures, LIBRAS), as well as themes in which deaf people have been mentioned: education, political struggles, individual victory, clinical aspects of deafness, sign writing, religion, sports, technology, etc. The analysis results show there is still much to be struggled before the deaf people are recognized in their particular culture as subjects rather than ‘disabled’.