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Deafblindness
What is deafblindness?
The most common definition of deafblindness adopted by the major organisations in this field is that from the report Breaking Through (Deafblind Services Liaison Group, 1988) which states that:
'Persons are regarded as deafblind if they have a severe degree of combined visual and auditory impairment resulting in problems of communication, information and mobility. The group will include persons who have had severe vision and hearing impairment since birth or early childhood and those who develop the dual impairment in adult life'.
This means that you are considered deafblind if you have a severe loss of hearing and sight, such that you have difficulty in communication with the outside world and in living a normal life. Under this definition a lot of deafblind people do have some sight and some hearing. It is in the area of communication that the biggest problems can be found.
Most deafblind people lose one or both of hearing and sight at a later stage in their life. The majority of our clients fall into this category.
See also Information for deafblind users.