The sign language and the interpreter guide as a mediator in the education of the person with deafblindness

Abstract

To reflect on the person with deafblindness and, above all, the service directed to the deafblind in the social and educational context, constitutes an academic need both in the production of theoretical knowledge and the practical interventions. This issue sets the paths taken by this article in order to investigate the importance of the guide-interpreter professional practice in serving people with deafblindness, from the communicative practices with the deafblind and characterizing the factors and aspects that interfere with his or her professional activities as a mediator for the socialization of the deafblind. From the socio-interactionist theoretical contributions, this work bases its reflections upon the understanding that the relationship of the deafblind with the environment constitutes an essential factor for the development of these individuals. The bibliographical research enables analysis of the lack of information and expertise on disability as a determining factor in the emergence of structural, programmatic, attitudinal and architectural barriers, which affect both the quality of services to the deafblind and the social reality of this individual, thus providing an excluding and segregating reality.