Establishing the first sign-based public deaf education programme in Iquitos, Peru

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the dialectic tension between the top-down and bottom-up processes that led to the establishment of the first public deaf education programme in Iquitos, Peru in 2016. This dialectic was initiated by the Peruvian Ministry's adoption and implementation of the policy of inclusive education, an internationally supported education initiative to educate all students, including those with special educational needs, in general education classrooms. The implementation of inclusive education in Iquitos led to an entire generation of deaf youth attending school without gaining opportunities to acquire the linguistic resources of Lengua de Señas Peruana (LSP). Parents of deaf children, dissatisfied with the inclusive education system, formed together to create a parents' association, Asociación Iquitos Unidos en Señas (AIUS). Two years later, AIUS signed an agreement with an existing school to establish a sign-based public deaf education programme, CEBA MORB - Periférico AIUS. We discuss what it took to bring Perféirco AIUS into being from the bottom-up and the top-down processes that both sparked the community effort and then facilitated it.