Deaf-Blindness

The partial or full loss of both vision and hearing poses unique challenges.  This dual disability is both isolating and restrictive, severely limiting access to education, opportunities for employment and contact with society.  The specific needs of deaf-blind individuals vary enormously according to age, time of onset and type of deaf-blindness.

Deaf-Blind: a condition that includes all types and degrees of dual hearing loss and vision loss and which interferes with communicating and acquiring information, though people who are deaf-blind may have varying levels of partial vision and/or hearing.

Deaf-blindness is unique and separate from deafness or blindness.  Unlike those who do not have full use of only one of these two senses, deaf-blind people are unable to use one sense to fully compensate for the impairment of the other.  As a result, people who have experienced both loss of sight and loss of hearing require specialized services, including adapted communication methods, that are different from those designed exclusively for people who are blind or people who are deaf.