Deaf Education Policy as Language Policy: A Comparative Analysis of Sweden and the United States

Abstract

The present study offers a cross-national, comparative analysis of deafeducation policies in Sweden and the United States and examines the ways in which these countries address status planning and acquisition planning for sign languages. Major policy documents were selected from each polity, reflecting key national legislative policies, as well as the primary texts that guide educational implementation: for Sweden, the Ordinance for Special Schools, the Education Act, and the national syllabi for special schools; for the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Analysis of these texts shows that such planning tends to be explicit in Sweden but implicit in the United States. Moreover, the Swedish policies focus on the development of sign language/national-language bilingualism, whereas the policies of the United States foreground assimilation to the hearing world; however, implementational space for sign language and multilingualism are present in the policies of both countries to varying degrees.

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