“I am deaf and I never told a story with sign language when I was little”interpreters of signs explode by the “abuse” to a service fundamentalEl college Beautiful Views defend your “true inclusion” of students with a disability

More of 9,000 students with hearing disabilities start these days the new school year with the unknown you know if you are going to have throughout the year with a sign language interpreter , for them it is the main tool for training in equality of conditions.

According to the data compiled by the Confederation State of Deaf People in the past year 2018-2019, there were a total of 36 specialists in sign language for 66 centers of six autonomous communities (Aragón, Canary islands, Cantabria, Madrid, Galicia and Ceuta).

In other 8 communities (Asturias, Baleares, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Comunidad Valenciana, Extremadura, Melilla and Murcia) have recourse to interpreters for infant and primary schools, while in Navarra, Catalonia or the Basque Country are limited to prioritizing the personal centers have some knowledge of sign language.

So, the ratio of interpreters in education stood at one for every 143 people who are deaf and this assumes that every month of September the students from practically all over Spain begin the course without an interpreter or with professionals that do not cover all school hours.

“It’s very frustrating for the children and kids to get to school on the first day of class and find that there is not an interpreter. Feel like a piece of furniture, don’t know anything”, explains to Efe, the vice-president of the Association for Bilingual Parents of Children who are Deaf (Abipams), Antonia Mirror , with the occasion of the International Day of the Leagues of Signs that will be celebrated this Monday, September 23.

Mirror is the mother of a deaf girl, who has already completed their higher studies, but that girl was faced with these problems. Therefore considers it essential that the interpreter present in the classroom from the first day of school and with all the hours covered, even in the playground.

But the reality is quite different. “ there is No guarantee of access to education for deaf students, because if you need a sign language interpreter and do not have, may not have access to this basic right,” says Efe the president of the Confederation State of the Deaf , Concha Díaz , after participating in a Congress of sign Language held last Thursday at the National University of Distance Education (UNED).

“We want our children to be independent, and to do this we need a fundamental tool, as are the interpreters, that they will enable their full inclusion. This tool can not miss”, underlines Mirror.

A law that is not fulfilled

The law 27/2007 to recognize sign languages and regulates the means of support for oral communication of deaf people, with hearing disability and deaf-blind states that the families with children who are deaf have the right to choose an education with sign language.

“there is No guarantee of access to education for deaf students, because if you need a sign language interpreter and do not have, may not have access to this basic right”

“This really not been met never and in Spain there are very few centers that offer the opportunity of an education with sign language,” says Diaz, which indicates that the majority of these schools are in the big cities.

Some communities have centers of reference for students who are deaf-and concerted public – and families can choose the school that take their children, but they can only opt for those in which there are services of sign language, speech therapy, etc., as Well, many families come limited their ability to choose the educational centre .

The Confederation has identified a total of 110 schools in which the language of signs in any way and only four autonomous communities (Andalusia, Catalonia, Madrid and Galicia) concentrate 70 % of this practice.

In this sense, Mirror recalls cases of families who have had to move out of their city to another bigger one because there was no school to provide these services to deaf students.

For Diaz, it is an economic problem, allocation of sufficient resources to meet the needs of children and young people and bet by the Ministry of Education and not the autonomous communities which assume the hiring professionals of sign language.

Also Mirror believes that this would solve the issue and claims, besides, continuity of professionals in the educational centres. “It is very important that you keep in the same sprouts in the relationship that is established with the students and teachers. Continuously change of interpreter impairs the student body”.

At present, each community has a way of selecting the performers. Some are officials, in other is for competition, etc

“We have spent many years working for a school that is inclusive, but if you are missing the main resource that we don’t do anything,” warns the Mirror.

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