Reflexões sobre o papel do intérprete de LIBRAS no Ensino Superior

Abstract

Today the presence of the LIBRAS interpreter in various activities is much more common than 10 years ago, and so, the role of the interpreter has been questioned. This research aims to identify the role of LIBRAS interpreter in higher education, from reports collected in an interview with each of these subjects (deaf student, hearing teacher (without the domain of LIBRAS) and the professional himself, the interpreter). In this research, we investigate the role played by LIBRAS interpreter in higher education, seeking to understand about his/hers activity. It is necessary to resume a little of the history of education of the deaf so that it gives us a clearer view of how we got here. We approach the creation of the first school for the deaf and how it reaches Brazil, we dealt with the creation of the first higher course of training of interpreter and teacher of LIBRAS in our country. We use as a basis the data of the last census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics - IBGE, some laws, decrees and international treaties that contributed to this whole process of accessibility to higher education. We conducted a research with these three subjects: teacher, student and interpreter, in order to obtain their narrative about the role of LIBRAS interpreter. A relevant difference in this research is to bring to our study the contributions not only of the teacher and the student, but also the view that the interpreter himself/herself has about his activity, about what his/her role is. For this, we work through interviews of people involved in this process: the deaf student, the listening teacher and the LIBRAS interpreter. This is a qualitative research, which uses thematization as a way to analyze the interviewees' statements. The main contribution of this study is to bring another look at the role of the interpreter and on how the professional interpreter of LIBRAS sees himself/ herself in the exercise of his/hers function.