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Deafblindness

What is deafblindness?

Deafblindness is a unique information-gathering disability that brings enormous challenges to the individual who is deafblind and the people who support them. Sometimes known as dual-sensory impairment or multi-sensory impairment, deafblindness is more than a combination of visual and hearing impairment or loss. An individual with deafblindness cannot use either of their primary senses as a source for accessing or receiving information. 

A woman sitting on the ground wearing pink glasses, a bright pink vest and long-sleeved shirt and black pants is sitting across from another woman and talking. The other woman, also sitting on the ground, is wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt and black pants and has a young boy sitting in front of her. The young boy with blonde spiked hair and wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt is playing with a toy with a circle of coloured bells. Other toys are on the floor in the foreground.
CDBA-BC Sensory Clinic

Understanding Deafblindness

Deafblindness is a diverse condition due to the wide range of sensory impairments, possible presence of additional disabilities, and the age of onset for the vision and hearing impairment. Individuals with deafblindness have distinctive communication, learning, and mobility challenges due to their dual-sensory loss.

A person can be born deafblind (congenital deafblindness) or acquire deafblindness later in life, and the needs and problems of these two groups are very different. However, the most important fact to note is that individuals with deafblindness are people. They have needs, skills, aspirations and challenges just as everyone else does.

Deafblindness

A woman with dark hair and light blue sweater is looking at a young girl in a wheel chair who has blue glasses and a grey sweater. They are holding hands and painting a picture together, using the hand-under-hand technique.

Definitions

Understanding the terminology
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A closeup of a child’s hands holding the pointer finger of an adult hand. The child is laying on his back with a soother in his mouth.

Causes

About the causes
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A young boy with blue glasses and a brown hat with a monkey face sitting in front of a chain-link fence. His hand is on top of an adult hand on the fence.

Implications

Implications of deafblindness
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"The child should feel that he is not at the mercy of his environment,

but that he is able to control it, to influence it."

Jan van Dijk