The Puerto Rican Deaf Community Summary

“The Puerto Rican Deaf Community” article is a work done by Holly Williams and Elizabeth Parks. In their work Williams and Parks talk about the problems that the deaf community in Puerto Rico have encountered. These problems are: that there not enough interpreters, violations to the law (ADA), poor education opportunities and discrimination in the workplace. In Puerto Rico, there is a higher Deaf community in the western and central areas where the people communicate with PRSL which is considered an ASL variation. The deaf community located in the North and east area, known as the metropolitan area, communicate with ASL. The article also talks about a channel that is now transmitting their programs with sing language, after representatives
of the deaf communicate protested. In Puerto Rico, there are also, 4 deaf schools, two that are private schools, and the other two are from the government.
Although the Puerto Rican government have work to improve the communication with the deaf community, I see that there still a lot of work to do. I consider that 4 schools are not enough for an island with a big population. These schools are also located far from the center and western areas, which are the places with a higher deaf community. I believe that if the Puerto Rican government want to improve their services to the population with disabilities, it should work first on seeing that their rights are not being violated. This way a better communication will be established and everyone will get a better service.