Best Practices and Challenges of Deaf Education in Mexico

Education for the deaf in Mexico has gone through many stages. It started out with a school for the deaf where Mexican Sign Language flourished, then moved across the spectrum to a medical-rehabilitation paradigm in which sign language was seen as a threat to the development and use of spoken language, and then focused on the integration of deaf students with children with other disabilities. Today the public school system promotes inclusion for deaf students in regular classrooms with very poor or no specialized support. Although the normative and legal framework in Mexico supports the use of sign language and bilingual education, the situation on the ground is less than optimal. This chapter discusses the achievements and the challenges we face in providing quality education that establishes a firm basis for the total inclusion of the deaf in Mexico. The experience of the Instituto Pedagógico para Problemas del Lenguaje (IPPLIAP) with a bilingual educational model is covered. Results of a survey of teachers who work with deaf learners throughout the country are reviewed.