Deaf-blindness
Last updated
Under IDEA, deaf-blindness is combined hearing and vision loss that causes communication and learning needs no single-sense program can meet.
Topic: Disability categories and conditions
In plain terms
Most students with deaf-blindness have some usable vision or hearing; few are totally deaf and totally blind. Because both distance senses are affected, the student may learn through touch, residual vision and hearing, and specialized communication methods such as tactile sign, object symbols or braille. Each state has a federally funded deaf-blind project that supports families and schools.
How it shows up in an IEP
IEPs often include a teacher of students with visual impairments, a teacher of the deaf, an orientation and mobility specialist and sometimes an intervener. Goals frequently address communication, concept development and orientation, measured in real routines.
Example
A student with combined vision and hearing loss uses object symbols to anticipate the day. A goal tracks touching the correct object to choose the next activity in 4 of 5 transitions.
The rule
Federal reference: 34 CFR §300.8(c)(2).
Related terms
- Visual impairment including blindnessUnder IDEA, visual impairment including blindness is a vision loss that, even with correction, adversely affects a student's educational performance.
- Hearing impairmentUnder IDEA, hearing impairment is a permanent or fluctuating hearing loss, not severe enough to be deafness, that adversely affects educational performance.
- Multiple disabilitiesMultiple disabilities is an IDEA category for two or more impairments together that create needs no single-disability program can meet.
- Orientation and mobilityOrientation and mobility is instruction that teaches students who are blind or visually impaired to travel safely and independently.
- BrailleBraille is a tactile system of reading and writing in which letters, numbers and symbols are formed by patterns of raised dots in cells of six.
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