On October 1, 2020, in Santiago de Chile at 1:00 p.m. unanimously, the Chamber of Deputies approved and sent to second processing the bill that recognizes deafblindness as a unique disability and promotes full social inclusion of deafblind people.
The initiative led by Deputy Undurraga and with the support of CIDEVI recognizes deafblind people as people with a unique disability that results from the combination of hearing and visual impairments, simultaneously present, which, when interacting with various barriers present in the environment, sees their communication impeded or restricted, have problems with mobilization, full and effective participation in society, access to information and the environment on equal terms with others.
It also recognizes the Interpreter Guide as the person who performs these functions for deafblind people with extensive knowledge of official communication systems adjusted to their needs.
It determines that public and private institutions will allow people with disabilities to access, attend and appear before them with sign language interpreters or interpreter guides, as the case may be, after accreditation of this condition.
The State of Chile will promote, within the scope of its powers and in accordance with its powers and means, the training and continuous training of interpreter guides, in accordance with the standards determined by the regulations issued for that purpose by the Ministry of Social Development and Family.
The legal initiative indicates that the State of Chile recognizes as official communication systems the fingerprint, the Braille system, orientation and mobility techniques and other alternative communication systems as established in the regulations issued for these purposes by the Ministry of Education. Deafblind people will be free to choose the system (s) they wish to use to communicate in their daily lives.
The legal text also has a transitory provision that indicates that the regulations related to the promotion, training and formation of interpreter guides and the recognition of official communication systems must be issued within 6 months of the publication of this law.