LACUNAS NA LEGISLAÇÃO FEDERAL SOBRE O DIREITO À EDUCAÇÃO DAS PESSOAS COM DISLEXIA NO ENSINO SUPERIOR

Abstract

Dyslexia is a specific mental learning disorder that affects reading and writing skills and, considering its high incidence (affecting between 5% and 17% of the world's population, according to the ABCD Institute), it is therefore necessary to observe whether these people's right to education is being safeguarded in higher education, since it is a disorder caused by genetic factors that has no cure and even lasts during this phase of adult life. Therefore, these people cannot be marginalised from the social environment, especially the academic environment. To this end, legislation relating to the aforementioned right will be analysed, for example: international treaties, laws, decrees and national manuals. In this sense, it is worth emphasising that, in a previous consultation, we did not find any legislation that adequately addressed the right to education in higher education for dyslexics; we only noticed laws that deal with the rights of people with disabilities (such as the Statute for People with Disabilities). For this reason, the main aim of this research is to carry out a critical bibliographical and documentary analysis in order to characterise and perceive the possible gaps in federal legislation that addresses the right to education of dyslexics in higher education. It is also worth noting that during the course of the research it was possible to perceive a difficulty in characterising what Dyslexia is, given the divergence of opinions on this issue. As a consequence, we observed the impact of prejudice towards people with mental disorders and discussed the need for reasonable adjustments to guarantee inclusive education. Finally, we realised that there is only one piece of international legislation that deals with adaptations for people with special needs in higher education: the Salamanca Declaration. However, this document does not have binding force, as it is a declaration, but it does serve as a pedagogical reference paradigm to stimulate the implementation of legislation that is more suited to the specific conditions of people with dyslexia. At federal level, it was possible to see that the National Education Guidelines and Bases Law (LDB) is currently the only legislation that addresses the right to education for people with dyslexia in Higher Education (especially in articles 27, 28 and 30 of the Law), as this legislation fills the gap initially hypothesised. However, there is also a law that deals with comprehensive support for students with dyslexia or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or another learning disorder (Law 14.254/2021), but this law is limited to basic education and focuses on children and young people in schools. We therefore suggest that the law be reformulated to include academic dyslexics, since the legislation includes a series of practical measures to support these people's right to education.Finally, we found a Bill of Law (PL) that provides for the conditions for taking tests for people with dyslexia, a situation proven by a medical report (PL nº 8.489/2017). In this way, it supports further measures to realise the reasonable adjustments provided for in the LDB for people with dyslexia. Therefore, this bill should be approved to help remedy the lack of a standard with practical measures to guarantee the right of people with Dyslexia in higher education.