Deaf people: a cultural and linguistic minority

This article analyzes the status of Deaf people as a linguistic and cultural minority, using a critical theoretical approach that contrasts clinical-therapeutic and socioanthropological models. Through a qualitative documentary review, key categories such as impairment, disability, sign language, Deaf culture, and the coloniality of power are examined. The findings show that the clinical model has historically promoted exclusionary practices, focused on correcting deafness through oralization, denying the identity and communicative value of sign language. In contrast, the socioanthropological approach recognizes deafness as a cultural difference and Deaf people as members of a community with a natural language and their own worldview. It also shows that the exclusion of this community responds to hegemonic social structures that operate under colonial logic, reinforced by educational policies that subordinate difference. It is concluded that the recognition of Deaf culture implies not only a conceptual shift, but also institutional transformations that guarantee the right to language, bilingual education, and full participation based on differences.