Between normalization and legitimation of the access, participation and training of the target group of special education in Brazilian higher education institutions

ABSTRACT

This article has the scope to present, based on national level data, a critical analysis about the normalization and legitimation of access and participation of the target group of special education in higher education institutions. Considering that the current regulations face the political, historical, economic, social and cultural plurality, reflecting differently on each context, we decided to conduct an exploratory study on the five Brazilian regions, involving 54 federal universities who have declared, in their institutional organization chart, to have disability services. To this end, in 2014, an online questionnaire was applied to the coordinators of these spaces, consisting of 148 open and closed questions, whose data were treated under the approaches of content analysis and descriptive statistics, culminating in three main axes of analysis: 1) normalization of disability services; 2) legitimation of service to the target audience of special education; 3) demands and challenges revealed nationwide. The data suggest that the regulation of the assistance offered to this group in higher education does not always indicate the legitimation of their rights. Sometimes this legitimation is still realized on the basis of a follow-up design that oscillates between assistance and services, on detriment of a universal conception of rights to access, full participation, professional training and realization of these people’s individual life projects under all spheres of society.

Keywords:
Higher education; Inclusion; People with disabilities; Normalization; Rights legitimation.