A liderança na comunidade Surda portuguesa: estudo qualitativo sobre quatro líderes Surdos

Abstract

We are presenting an antropologic qualitative study on the Portuguese Deaf community, specifically about Deaf leadership. After finding four Deaf leaders we crossed their four life stories, according to the etnobiographical methodology. The ultimate goal is to obtain Deaf leadership characteristics and profile these four leaders. Results: After the interviews a corpus of about 6 hours and 15 minutes was gathered, this means a total of 80 pages of text. The subjects are four male men, born from 1943 to 1965. Two are post-linguistico and two are pre-linguistico Deaf although they all have different sign language acquisition periods since their etiology is itself different. Crossing references from other researchers some variables and hypotheses were validated, like the dynamic presence of these leaders who coexist between the hearing world and the Deaf world, for example. They must constantly work in demystifying social prejudice towards the Deaf and try to create awareness in the hearing world. The actions in defense of full citizenship rights, this is what turn these ordinary men into leaders.