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ANTONIO CAMPOS DE ABREU here are no historical statistics about deafness in Brazil from the age of its discovery by Europeans in the sixteenth century to the year 1855, when a deaf Frenchman, Hernest Huet, arrived in the country. With the help of the Brazilian government, he founded the National Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Rio de Janeiro, with the aim of developing cultural and educational activities. The Institute opened on September 26, 1857. Many deaf people attended the school, and the use of sign language increased in the country. Yet the problems of the deaf Brazilians using that language also increased because of discrimination and prejudice that continue today. In contrast, it is said that the situation is easier for the deaf Brazilian Indians. In their tribes, deaf and hard of hearing people are respected, and sign language is used for communication. Today, Brazilian cities are experiencing a decay in the education and social integration of deaf people. Specialized institutions for deaf people are weak and inactive, which causes feelings of anger and mistrust within the deaf community. In the area of special education, the government lacks such fundamental statistics as the number of disabled people in the country. As a result, there is only one school for deaf-blind youngsters in Brazil. The population must be made aware of the problems that deafblind people face. Society discriminates against them, and many do not have the right to attend school. At present, deaf people in Brazil are struggling to develop themselves in spite of education-related problems. The Ministry of Education has established an educational policy which, from the point of view of deaf people, is inadequate; thus the crisis continues . Discrimination occurs frequently. Deaf people now compare their plight to that of the black people upon whom slavery was imposed, or the Brazilian Indians who are about to lose their lands for political and economic reasons. Brazilian deaf people continue to demand an educational program to accomplish their social integration, but they receive almost nothing. The government and the professionals in deaf education seem to have become more and more distant from and unconcerned about issues of communication. As in the past, the majority advocate only oral communication, using teaching methods from France, Germany, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Brazilian professionals imitate these methods without respect for the deaf community and without listening to their grievances. For these reasons, we feel that the deaf associations are critical, as they provide a place where deaf people can gather to discuss these issues and develop strategies to combat them. The first deaf association in Brazil was founded in 1913, and today there are about forty associations all over the country. They keep in touch with each other through sports competitions and correspondence. The Deaf Social Life in Brazil The National Federation for the Education and Integration of the Deaf (Federa!,;ao Nacional de Educa!,;ao e Integra!,;ao dos Surdos or FENEIS) was founded in 1987. This organization has begun a program to expose the discriminatory behavior of the professional community and the government toward the deaf community. FENEIS aims to secure the rights of deaf people to social integration and to persuade professionals and the schools to adopt the Total Communication philosophy. By espousing the oral methods of Europe, professionals have become biased against the use of sign language. A few years ago, some Brazilian professionals visited the United States to observe the educational methods used at Gallaudet University. Despite what they said, they did not accept the Total Communication philosophy, not even trying to obtain the materials necessary for its use in this country. Oralism continued to dominate the field of deaf education in Brazil until very recently. Many teachers reject the use of sign language, believing that intelligent deaf people must be taught speech in order to achieve high school graduation. In the opinion of these teachers, the use of sign language interferes with the deaf person's learning to speak. During the International Year of the Disabled (1981), a warning cry was issued about the situation for deaf people, and as a result the government began to change its policies regarding deaf education. This change grew out of a series of disclosures about the state of social integration of deaf people in Brazil. In 1984 and again in 1988, I travelled around Brazil, visiting almost the entire country and standing face to face with deaf people who worked within deaf communities. The power of the deaf...

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