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Deafblindness

Background

Deafblindness – sometimes known as dual sensory impairment or multi-sensory impairment – is a combination of sight (see entry, Visual Impairment) and hearing difficulties (see entry, Deafness). Some individuals will be literally deaf and blind; many others will have some sight and/or hearing that they can make use of. Most deafblind people will have difficulties with communication, mobility and access to information.

An individual may be born deafblind (called congenital deafblindness) or acquire deafblindness later in life, and the needs and problems of these two groups are different. People born deafblind will often have other difficulties to cope with. They may have physical disabilities, learning difficulties, experience delays in learning, or have challenging behaviour.

What are the causes? View What are the causes?

Medical text written October 2004 by Dr T Best, Chief Executive, Sense, London, UK

 

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