The "DeafBlind" Definition

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Loghead

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I'd like to know how deaf and blind people have to be before proclaiming themselves as "deafblind". I'm asking because there are people around Alldeaf that call themselves "deafblind" and they don't really seem like Helen Keller's equals... meaning they might just be HOH, or may be able to see, just not that well.
 
i consider my blindness and deafness to be separate. Always had. I am legally blind since my vision is 20/200.

The only time I ever describe myself as "blind" is for the hearing people who somehow got it in their head that glasses = perfect vision. So... if you got low vision... YAY GLASSES FIX EVERYTHING! I never really figured out what that mentality was all about. Otherwise... just call me whatever.

I do notice among the deaf population... "blind" somehow conjures up an image of being completely blind. However they seems to understand "low vision" doesn't means that it's fixable.
 
of course, people tend to treat me as moderate or mild hearing loss, and think speaking loud will work for me as it sometimes seem work for people who lost their hearing due to age.
 
The Florida Statutes and Education Rules define deaf-blindness as having sensory losses “affecting both vision and hearing, the combination of which causes a serious impairment in the abilities to acquire information, communicate, or function within the environment”, or having a “degenerative condition which will lead to such a disability.” In addition to including progressive losses in either or both channels, this definition also covers peripheral vision loss, and other documented vision conditions such as light sensitivity and lack of contrast sensitivity. The definition also includes monaural hearing loss, and difficulty in screening out auditory background sounds.
Deaf-Blind Definition
 
There are many definitions and the definitions for childhood vs. adult deafblindness seem to be the most different. From what I understand, in adulthood, legal blindness and any hearing loss or legal deafness and any vision loss is considered to be deafblindness. In children, any combination of hearing and vision loss that impacts the learning process enough to require alternative techniques for learning is considered deafblindness.

Does the word “deaf-blind” mean a person is fully deaf and fully blind?
No. Most people who are deaf-blind have a combination of vision and hearing loss. They usually have some useful but not always reliable vision and hearing. Some people have little or no useable hearing and vision.

For example, a person may be born deaf or hard of hearing and lose his or vision later in life. Another person may grow up as a blind or visually impaired person and experience a hearing loss later. Some people are born with combined vision and hearing loss, or lose their vision and hearing at an early age.

Two federal definitions of deaf-blindness exist. One is used in primarily in education, and the other in rehabilitation. To read more about these definitions, you can visit The National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness website at NCDB Selected Topics: Definitions of Deaf-Blindness.
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What is Deaf-Blindness

It may seem that deaf-blindness refers to a total inability to see or hear. However, in reality deaf-blindness is a condition in which the combination of hearing and visual losses in children cause "such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness" ( 34 CFR 300.7 ( c ) ( 2 ), 1999) or multiple disabilities.

Children who are called deaf-blind are singled out educationally because impairments of sight and hearing require thoughtful and unique educational approaches in order to ensure that children with this disability have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

A person who is deaf-blind has a unique experience of the world. For people who can see and hear, the world extends outward as far as his or her eyes and ears can reach. For the young child who is deaf-blind, the world is initially much narrower. If the child is profoundly deaf and totally blind, his or her experience of the world extends only as far as the fingertips can reach.

Such children are effectively alone if no one is touching them. Their concepts of the world depend upon what or whom they have had the opportunity to physically contact. If a child who is deaf-blind has some usable vision and/or hearing, as many do, her or his world will be enlarged. Many children called deaf-blind have enough vision to be able to move about in their environments, recognize familiar people, see sign language at close distances, and perhaps read large print. Others have sufficient hearing to recognize familiar sounds, understand some speech, or develop speech themselves. The range of sensory impairments included in the term "deaf-blindness" is great.

From Overview on Deaf-Blindness by Barbara Miles.
For additional information on deaf-blindness see our Selected Topics
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Only a small percentage of deafblind people are totally deafblind. I think it's 3% but don't quote me on this.

One of the reasons the requirements for legal deafblindness are less than the requirements for legal blindness or legal deafness alone is because in the case of single sensory loss, a person can compensate with the other sense. But with dual sensory loss, the ability to compensate with the other sense is lost. Therefore the effect of the dual loss is greater than the sum of the vision loss and hearing loss. Another thing to consider is that a blind person with only minimal hearing loss or a deaf person with only minimal vision loss may be functionally totally deafblind in some environments, for example in bright light or at night, or in noisy environments.

Hope that was helpful, Loghead.
 
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There are many definitions and the definitions for childhood vs. adult deafblindness seem to be the most different. From what I understand, in adulthood, legal blindness and any hearing loss or legal deafness and any vision loss is considered to be deafblindness. In children, any combination of hearing and vision loss that impacts the learning process enough to require alternative techniques for learning is considered deafblindness.


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Only a small percentage of deafblind people are totally deafblind. I think it's 3% but don't quote me on this.

And I believe HearAgain is our only member who actually is in that tiny 3 percent of totally blind, totally deaf.
 
I do notice among the deaf population... "blind" somehow conjures up an image of being completely blind. However they seems to understand "low vision" doesn't means that it's fixable.

That's interesting. Personally I've come across the same exact thing with hearing people.
 
And I believe HearAgain is our only member who actually is in that tiny 3 percent of totally blind, totally deaf.

I think dreama is totally deafblind too but I might be wrong.
 
I think dreama is totally deafblind too but I might be wrong.

No, not yet. Hear Again is NLP, but Dreama has vision in some lighting conditions.
 
I'm yet to meet someone who is completely deafblind. I'm profoundly deaf and completely blind in most lighting conditions although I do have a very small amount of useable vision. I can see vague shapes and shadows.

I used to be able to see a lot more then that. I used to be able read print under a CCTV, and also use a monocular. I could even manage with a minicom that had very large print.
 
Hearagain is completely blind but not completely deafblind since she seems to make good use out of her CI.
 
Hearagain is completely blind but not completely deafblind since she seems to make good use out of her CI.

True, but I put her in that category as she would be if anything malfunctioned with her CI's.
 
Pfft...

Even those that consider themselves as "completely blind," in both personal anecdotes and medical terminology, have similar experiences to dreama in term of what they can see.

Just something to think about...
 
Pfft...

Even those that consider themselves as "completely blind" have similar experiences to dreama.

Just something to think about...

What are you talking about? Blindness really goes NLP, SLP, sees shapes and shadows, low vision.

So what do you mean? NLP is the only totally blind that there is.
 
My father has been deaf almost all his life (lost all his hearing when he was 7 yrs. old) and was slowly going blind from RP/Usher's until a dumb-ass optometrist (eye-doctor/surgeon) had this revolutionary surgical procedure that would take care of it... laser-surgery.
It failed ... now he is legally blind and has learned braille and how to sign using tactile reading. He's been deaf-blind now over 10 years. His vision is such that on a "bad day" it's like looking through a sheet of tissue paper (white blur), on a good day he can use his computer (with braille display USB attachment) as long as the screen is in black background with white, extra large lettering, but it takes him a long time to make out what is on the screen (text only).
It's been a long drawn out nightmare for him and he has fought hard to overcome depression and anxiety. He still functions but now instead of being a deaf advocate (past president of local NAD state chapters, etc) he's now a deaf-blind advocate, being on the state board of deaf/hoh/db advocacy quorum which reports to the state's legislation.

Definition... in it's simplest terms... one who cannot see nor hear.
 
What are you talking about? Blindness really goes NLP, SLP, sees shapes and shadows, low vision.

So what do you mean? NLP is the only totally blind that there is.

"completely blind" usually refer to as in no functional vision in that it doesn't really help the person any... over here. Doesn't necessarily means NLP.
 
"completely blind" usually refer to as in no functional vision in that it doesn't really help the person any... over here. Doesn't necessarily means NLP.

OH, now I understand you.
 
OH, now I understand you.

I get confused myself too...

At least in the deaf world, it's "are you okay with speaking, or can you sign?" However... with the blinds it's "okay, what you can and can't see?" Drives me nuts sometimes.

I like being simplistic, but working with blind agency is anything but simple. I means I like the idea of having one standard for all, but with blind and low vision people, there is none of that. * sighs * So all the terminology and cultural meanings can get to be too much.
 
His vision is such that on a "bad day" it's like looking through a sheet of tissue paper (white blur), on a good day he can use his computer (with braille display USB attachment) as long as the screen is in black background with white, extra large lettering, but it takes him a long time to make out what is on the screen (text only).

That sounds similar to what I see at my best. I can see X16. Only 3 or 4 lines of print fit on the computer screen and I can't see them all at once. I have a braille display too but I haven't figured out all the comands on how to operate a computer without a mouse so that's where the print comes in handy.

At my worse I don't see anything at all.
 
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