Definitions

Deafblindness: An individual with deafblineness is someone who has a combined loss of vision and hearing. In these situations, neither their vision nor their hearing can be used as a primary source of receiving or processing information.

Intervention: Intervention by definition means to come or go between; to mediate. For most people the eyes and ears intervene in taking information from the environment to the brain. Having a loss of these senses, the person with deafblindness requires another person to intervene or assist in passing on information. Intervention is the process which allows an individual with deafblindness to receive non-distorted information and enables him or her to interact with the environment.

Intervenor: An Intervenor mediates between the person with deafblindness and their environment to enable them to communicate effectively with, and receive non-distorted information from, the world around them. They communicate using the preferred communication methods of the individual with deafblindness. These may include but are not limited to object cues, touch cues, tactile cues, speech/voice, vocalizations, intonation, gestures, ASL sign language (adapted sign language), facial expressions, body language, photographs, drawings, line drawings, braille, abstract symbols and technology.