Deafblindness – A Definition

A student with deafblindness experiences a significant degree of hearing and vision loss, the combination of which affects communication, learning, social interactions, mobility, and access to information. Deafblindness is considered an information-gathering disability.

Congenital Deafblindness: Congenital deafblindness refers to individuals who are born with both visual and hearing losses and/or who experience these dual sensory losses early in life.

Acquired Deafblindness: Acquired deafblindness refers to individuals who experience a combined vision and hearing loss later in life, usually after the development of language. The vision and hearing losses may be simultaneous or may occur at separate times. The losses may be acute and/or progressive.