Deaf in Sweden

Education

The number of deaf children is relatively small, the knowledge of the municipalities about education for the deaf is very limited. Deaf children should not be integrated with hearing children.

Pupils should receive education in the structure and grammar of sign language as well as reading, writing and understanding the Swedish language. Thus competent and well educated teachers, in the subjects Sign Language and Swedish as second language for the deaf, are needed. Both hearing and deaf teachers are needed within the instruction of deaf pupils. Hearing teachers must be very proficient in sign language.

Increasingly more jobs today call for adult education or higher education. Deaf persons who want an education within the municipal adult education have the right to interpreter services. One obstacle is the lack of interpreters, another is that the municipalities often do not budget for means designed for interpreters in the municipal adult education. Several deaf persons have been denied access to an education within the Komvux or the Kunskapslyftet (both parts of the municipal adult education), partly due to lack of interpreters, but also because the municipality claims to have no money for interpreter services.

At the universities and institutes for higher education the lack of interpreters as well as sufficient economic resources constitute an obstacle. Many have had to cancel their planned studies at the university, due to the lack of interpreters.