About.....Being Deaf
and Blind
Deaf-Blindness is a dual hearing and visual disability that severely limits a persons’
ability to conduct many functions of daily life. Deaf-Blindness can be any combination of vision
and hearing loss. Deaf-Blind people may be totally deaf and blind or they may have some usable hearing and sight.
Communication can be by sign language, including tactile or covered signs, or speech. Many Deaf-Blind people read
Braille or have enough vision to use large type or standard print. Services for Deaf-Blind people can include sign
language interpreters and Support Service Providers (SSP), and the provision of technical aids such as Braille screen
readers for computers.
It is rare that an individual with Deaf-Blindness would be completely blind and completely deaf. Individuals who have a combined vision and hearing loss have unique communication, learning, and mobility challenges due to their dual sensory loss. Deaf-Blindness is a unique and diverse condition due to the wide range of sensory capabilities, possible presence of additional disabilities, and the age of onset for the vision and hearing loss. A child with Deaf-Blindness would include the infant who has a diagnosis of Retinopathy of Prematurity (a retinal condition that is associated with premature birth) and has an acquired hearing loss due to meningitis at age two. Another person with Deaf-Blindness may have been born with a profound hearing loss and developed a later vision loss such as retinitis pigmentosa.There are many causes of Deaf-Blindness including Ushers Syndrome and other genetic conditions, Congenital Rubella Syndrome, illness and accident. |