My dad and his sister are (from age about 7 and 8) profoundly deaf and totally blind. Dad has two artificial eyes. He retained speech, but his sister (the eldest) did not. She has no speech and has considerable difficulties expressing complex ideas using the manual and sign. We do not know why she lost her speech whilst dad didn't.
Generally, it's hard for people to understand dual sensory problems. People are usually (at least these days) a bit more enlightened and aware.
Dad and aunty always say the deafness is the worst problem, it is so isolating. I have found this with my own hearing loss - terribly. And I have only a mild/moderate loss and even this cuts me off in some situations.
There's lots of lovely techy equipment like we can text on our mobiles instead of struggling on the phone - but of course that's no use to someone who can't see.
And there are audio devices for blind people. But they're no use to deaf people.
So it's difficult to find technologies which help deafblind people.
One thing all three of us agree on is: digital hearing aids are great!
It's also difficult for many people to understand that they have literally no vision at all. Nothing whatsoever. Often people say "But surely he can see something..."
On a lighter side - when I was a kid, dad used to tease me with his artificial eyes. When you first have your eye removed, you need a small prosthetic eye, and gradually over the years, you have to have bigger ones, until the socket settles down and you'll just have to have your eye polished every so often. Dad used to hide his older, smaller eyes in places like my lego and my bed to make me squeal! hahaha....
hence, I can talk about it in a very natural way and don't feel uncomfortable about it. Thanks dad
