Implications of linguistic diversity in sexual education: understandings from a community experience with deaf adolescents

Being  deaf  implies  being  part  of  a  linguistic  minority  that  is  socially  classified  as  disabled  and  therefore  marked  by  stigma  and  exclusion,  which  constitutes  a  fact  that represents a relational obstacle, as the deaf find themselves inserted in a world mostly listener who demands oralization and understanding of spoken language as a basic element of socialization and education. This is how the approach to sexuality becomes a constant challenge in the deaf adolescenthearing family interaction, where the acquisition of sign language sets the standard for the generation of bonds and the socioaffective development of this population group. Due to the above, the chapter that is presented arises from the qualitative findings of the research entitled signing of sexuality: family factors associated with the sexual education of deaf adolescents and their incidence in the processes of socioaffective interaction in the city of Ibagué, which was developed from a mixed approach and a sequential explanatory design, with the participation of ten deaf adolescents and 10 parents, to whom a survey and a semistructured interview were applied, the latter being from which it is given account in this letter. Based on the results, it was concluded that the teaching of Sign Language as a linguistic diversity requires the accompaniment of a linguistic model who, in his role as coeducator, implicitly becomes a primary educator regarding what sexuality implies beyond genitality, given that in families the sexual education of deaf adolescents is marked by myths and taboos related to disability.