Deafblindness

Deafblindness is the condition of having little or no useful sight and hearing. As with the word "Deaf," it can be capitalized to indicate that it is a culture; some prefer the spelling "DeafBlind". Deafblind people have an experience quite distinct from people who are only deaf or blind and not both. The best-known deafblind person is the author, activist, and lecturer Helen Keller.

Communication
Deafblind people can't talk but communicate in many different ways; determined by the nature of their condition, the age of onset, and what resources are available to them. For example, someone who grew up deaf and experienced vision loss later in life is likely to use a tactile mode of a sign language; others who grew up blind and later acquired deafness are more likely to use a tactile mode of their spoken/written language. Methods of communication include:


 * Use of residual hearing (speaking clearly, hearing aids) or sight (signing within a restricted visual field, writing with large print).
 * Tactile signing — sign language or a manual alphabet such as the American Manual Alphabet, or DeafBlind Alphabet (also known as "two-hand manual") with tactile or visual modifications.
 * Interpreting services (such as sign language interpreters or communication aides)
 * Communication devices such as Tellatouch.

Multisensory methods have been used to help deafblind people to enhance their communication skills. This can be with very young children with developmental delay (helping with pre-intentional communication), young people with learning difficulties, or older people, including those with dementia. One such process is Tacpac.

Causes
There are over 70 known causes of deafblindness. Causes can be categorised into two groups: acquired and congenital.

Acquired
The majority of people with sight and hearing impairments have had both sight and hearing throughout most of their lives, and experienced a loss of those senses through illness, injury or age. According to sense.org.uk, about 4% of people over 60 in the UK have both hearing and vision impairments. Most people with acquired sight and hearing loss retain some useful sight and/or hearing. Some people have congenital deafness and acquired blindness (such as glaucoma or cataracts) or vice-versa.

Congenital
Children born deaf and blind are described as having congenital deafblindness. This condition may be due to prenatal infection (such as rubella), genetic/chromosomal syndromes (such as Down syndrome), birth trauma or maternal heavy alcohol and drug use. Some congenital conditions will not cause deafblindness until later in life. Sense.org.uk reports that the biggest cause of deafblindness in children in the western world today is 'unknown.' Maternal rubella was once the major cause of deafness and deafblindness in the west, but is now rare due to widespread vaccination programs.

Usher syndrome is also a major contributor to deafblindness. It is a genetic condition of people born deaf or hard of hearing, who gradually start to lose their sight. The sight loss usually begins in late childhood and is caused by an eye condition known as Retinitis Pigmentosa. Early symptoms include night blindness and loss of peripheral vision. It affects 3-6% of the people in the UK who were born deaf or partially hearing (sense.org.uk).

Deafblind people in history

 * Francisco Goya (1746–1828): a Spanish painter, deaf and blind by the time of his death.
 * Victorine Morriseau (1789–1832): First deafblind person to be educated in Paris
 * James Mitchell (1795–1869): congenitally deafblind son of Scottish minister
 * Hieronymus Lorm (19th century): inventor and novelist
 * Sanzan Tani (1802–1867): Japanese teacher who became deaf in childhood and blind later in life, communicating with students by touch.
 * Laura Bridgman (1829–1889): first deafblind child to be successfully educated in the US
 * Mary Bradley (time and place of birth not known, died in 1866)
 * Julia Brace (1807–1884)
 * Eliza Cooter (1841–1860)
 * Robert Dewar (1860–1877)
 * Ragnhild Kåta (1873–1947): Norway
 * Yvonne Pitrois (1880–1937): French biographer
 * Helen Keller (1880–1968): author, activist, and lecturer
 * Alice Betteridge (1901–1966): first deafblind Australian to be educated. Teacher, traveller, writer.
 * Jack Clemo (1916–1994): British poet who became deafblind as an adult
 * Raimo Williams (1917–1945)
 * Robert Smithdas (1925–): the first DeafBlind person in the US to receive a master's degree.
 * Georgia Griffith (circa 1930–)
 * John J. Boyer (1936–)
 * Richard Kinney (?–?): Educator, lecturer, and poet; president of the Hadley School for the Blind from 1975 to 1979.
 * Danny Delcambre (born 1959)
 * Theresa Poh Lin Chan (born c. 1944)
 * Aletrishe Nietrà's granddaughter Sillian (1989-1994)