Chilean public policies and social inclusion of deaf people

Abstract

After years of struggle and work, Deaf communities in many parts of the world have organized themselves to demand the recognition of their existence and their right to be considered as part of societies, respecting their language and the culture that makes them live in communities (Oviedo, 2003). The article looks in depth at the perception of different actors on Public Policies and social inclusion of the Deaf collective. The methodology is descriptive qualitative, based the semi-structured interview. Among the participants, there were 16 Deaf people, three Chilean sign language interpreters and three representatives of a government agency linked to disability. The results indicate that the legitimacy of public policies within the reality of the deaf population is still delayed predominantly by a speech the disposition to act and the questioning of how to make the law operational.