The access of deaf students in expressive numbers in Brazilian Higher Education Institutions is a relatively new phenomenon and still little known. In this study we aimed to examine the challenges faced by deaf students, professors, Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) interpreters and managers, starting from the process of democratizing access to higher education and focusing, particularly, on the insertion and participation of deaf students in academic literacy practices. For this, we examined issues such as: what challenges have been faced by professors, interpreters, students and managers in the processes of participation of deaf students in academic literacy practices? What alternatives are built by these social actors to face these challenges? In order to do that, we carried out a study in which ethnography was used as a logic of inquiry, with the development of participant observation (Spradley, 1979; Heath, 1982; Green; Bloome, 1997; Castanheira et al., 2001; Green; Dixon; Zaharlick, 2005; Blommaert; Dong, 2010). The research was carried out at a Brazilian federal public university, over the course of ten months, starting in 2018 and finishing in early 2019. The participant observation in the classroom was carried out for one semester in a class from the first semester of the Linguistic-Portuguese undergraduate course. The classroom had 41 students and among them, 3 deaf students who were accompanied by two Brazilian sign language interpreters. During and after the observations in the classroom, we were able to use audio, video and field notes to record the interactions between students, the professor, interpreters and managers, inside and outside the classroom. Our insertion in the field during the participant observation also provided us opportunities to conduct semi-structured interviews with several participants, inside and outside the classroom, and to conduct a focus group with the institution's deaf students. The research database includes field notes; audio recordings; video recordings; institutional documents; and materials produced by the professor for the development of activities of the observed disciplines. During the study, especially in the interrogation of data during the analytical process, contributions from studies of literacies as a social practice and academic literacies were explored (Street, 1984; 2010; Gee, 1996; Lea; Street, 1998; Lillis, 1999; Barton ; Hamilton, 1998) and contributions from studies in the field of deaf education (Papen; Tusting, 2019; Gesser, 2015; Fernandes; Moreira, 2017; Quadros, 1997; Lacerda, 1998; Law, 2010). The analytical process of this study met challenges faced by students, interpreters, managers and professors such as: building relationships between classroom participants aiming at the participation of deaf students in academic literacy practices; negotiating and understanding concepts during academic reading in a second language by deaf students who speak sign language; interacting between deaf students and other students; building support for deaf students into reading and writing activities; institutional monitoring of the particularities of deaf students facing the expectations and demands of reading and writing in the Linguistics course. Finally, although challenges have been identified, the findings of this study indicate a potential to support institutional policies and actions to support the keeping of deaf students in Higher Education.
