To talk about deafness and prejudice is to describe one of the interfaces of being deaf. Among the many things that this involves, this article puts in discussion the norm of speech and the myth of "lip reading" because they both legitimate a series of oral practices, affecting negatively the identity of being deaf and the right to communicate in a meaningful way. In the name of a "pseudo-integration" of deaf with hearing people, prejudices in relation to deafness and the deaf are disguised, when implicitly not accepting their linguistic difference, their perception of the world and way of being. The discussion is built essentially on many experiences of deaf people themselves, in order to bring out the nuances, and in so doing, reveal some of the discourses which legitimize the prejudices, whilst seeking to lay bare the painful implications that these generate in the life of deaf people
deafness; prejudice; sign language (Libras)