There is no single definition of deafblindness. One can encounter medical or functional explanations of this term. According to the functional definition, developed by the Association for the Welfare of the Deafblind, a deafblind person is a person with simultaneous, severe damage to vision and hearing. Damage to both senses renders compensation of one sense by the other difficult or impossible. This results in an overlap between the effects of hearing damage and vision damage. As a consequence, a deafblind person faces specific difficulties in communication, movement and access to information.
The impairment of both senses means that a deafblind person often needs to use additional forms of support and modes of communication to those enjoyed by people who are solely deaf or blind. Despite this, the disability assessment system in Poland does not use a separate code for deafblindness.
The population of deafblind people is very diverse. It ranges from those who were born with damage to one or both of their senses to those whose sight or hearing has been impaired later in life, usually in old age. The degree of damage to sight and hearing also varies among the deafblind people. The group includes:
- hard of hearing persons with visual impairment (the largest group among deafblind people),
- hard of hearing blind people,
- deaf people with visual impairment, and
- completely deafblind people (the smallest group among deafblind people).
The functional implications of deafblindness vary widely. Each deafblind person may need a different type and range of support depending on the degree of visual and hearing impairment. The simultaneous impairment of the senses of sight and hearing sometimes also requires—in addition to the realm of communication—the use of support for access to information and mobility. Such services are provided by guide-interpreters with expertise in interacting with deafblind people (including ways of communicating, such as dactylography, perceived visually and tactilely, and the Lorm alphabet) and with knowledge of techniques for safely guiding a deafblind person, for instance in urban spaces.
Overcoming social and infrastructural limitations, deafblind persons learn, work and strive for self-realisation on an equal footing with other members of society. The World in Hands Foundation supports them on the path to fuller social integration and activation, while offering deafblind people space to develop their interests and skills.
Did you know that:
- there are between 5000 and 7000 deafblind people living in Poland?
- approximately 3 million people in the European Union are deafblind?
- 27 June, the anniversary of the birth of Helen Keller, the American deafblind writer, is celebrated as World Deafblind Day?
In the last week of June, we also celebrate International Deafblind Awareness Week. During this time, we are intensifying our awareness-raising activities to increase public awareness of deafblind people.
If you are a deafblind person who would like to benefit from the support we offer, or if you know a deafblind person and would like to find out how you can support her or him, please contact us.
