Monica’s Gang will have its first deaf character, Sueli, a 9-year-old girl who is a sports fan. Sueli will make her debut in social media posts made by Instituto Mauricio de Sousa in partnership with the 24th Summer Deaflympics, which takes place between May 1st and 15th, in Caxias do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul.
Sueli communicates through the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), as a legal means of communication and expression for the deaf, according to Law 10.436/2002. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 5% of the Brazilian population has some kind of hearing loss. This number represents 10 million people, of which 2.7 million have profound deafness. In her stories, Sueli must address aspects and themes common to the deaf community, in addition to reinforcing the importance of accessibility and inclusion.
The idea of creating the character was born from an old will of the designer Mauricio de Sousa and, with the Olympic event, it took shape. In its 24th edition, the Summer Deaflympics will receive deaf athletes from more than 77 nationalities, who will compete in different modalities, 20 male and 18 female.
“Monica’s Gang has appeared in several stories communicating with Libras, and I’ve been thinking about bringing a deaf character to be part of the gang for a long time. The fact that the Deaflympics took place for the first time in Brazil was a great incentive for Sueli to finally be born”, says Mauricio de Sousa, father of Turma da Mônica.
To develop the character, the studios of Mauricio de Sousa Produções had the collaboration of the organization of the 24th Deaflympics and professors from Derdic, a non-profit institution, maintained by Fundação São Paulo and academically linked to PUC São Paulo that works in education, accessibility and employability of the deaf, and offers clinical care for low-income people with hearing, voice and language disorders.
With the arrival of a new resident of the Limoeiro neighborhood, Turma da Mônica expands the representation of People with Disabilities (PwD), as it already has characters such as Luca, a wheelchair user; Dorinha, visually impaired; Tati, with Down syndrome; and Andrew, autistic.
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