Gestures around the face to accompany the syllables spoken by the mouth in real time. Frédérique Pépin illustrates the “completed spoken language”, in other words “the code”, to “help with lip reading”, asks this professional coder and mother of a deaf teenager. It is a transcription of all the phonemes, so there is no confusion. We can also rephrase the statement if necessary. For several years, she intervened, hired by the ociation of parents of hearing impaired children of Calvados (Apedac) in cles of the department to help some 18 students, in this situation of handicap, to follow the courses. Its mission is not renewed for this start of the school year, as for the other seven coders of structure.
“In March 2022, the Normandy region and the Calvados department decided to end the subsidy they granted us, recalls President Agnès Valette. Because the allocations are falling and a 2015 law provides that the State, and not the local authorities, provide education in the ordinary environment for students with disabilities”. This summer, the ociation’s staff (in particular the eight coders) were laid off for lack of budget. Faced with this situation, the National Education had to think of an alternative, arguing that the profession of coder is not part of its grids. Understand: impossible to recruit Apedac coders with their status and remuneration. “The academy proposes that the students be accompanied by AESH staff (Accompanying students with disabilities) previously trained in the completed spoken language”, indicates the rectorate.
“It allowed me to follow in cl”
A training of 20 hours insufficient in the eyes of families. Jeanne is entering the final year in Caen and expects her recovery to be “disturbing. We will feel the difference between an AESH and a professional coder, in relation to their difference in level and mastery of the code”. A fortiori in the highest cles, where you have to code quickly to keep up with the pace of the course. This is where the whole point of the code reveals Albane, who went to school with it. “It allowed me to follow in cl, to understand the teachers and the students without getting tired, testifies the terminal. Without the encoders, I will not be able to perceive all the information. I’m afraid of losing myself”. A concern shared by his mother, Patricia: “The year of the Baccalaureate, not having the code, it will be complicated. We wonder if she will make it. We are angry”. Guillaume Vandaële, vice-president of the ociation and himself a parent of two deaf children, recalls that “the code works miracles. It allows good results but also good integration. Our children want to be like the others. Finding yourself with AESH trained in the basics of the code has no interest”.
The impe presented by the Rectorate upsets the ociation all the more because, according to it, other academies, such as that of Versailles, have circumvented the problem by a procedure of call for tenders to contractualize the support of these students. by professional coders employed by a private structure. In Calvados, National Education understands the refusal of Apedac coders to be recruited with less pay and “a lack of recognition” (Frédérique Pépin). She points out that “if families hire a coder, they will be accepted into the clroom.” A solution that families present as too expensive. The ociation plans to take legal action to denounce the alternative proposed by the body which, according to it, does not meet its obligation to do everything to ensure normal schooling for children with disabilities.