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Canadian Helen Keller Centre
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Challenges
facing a person who is deaf-blind |
A person
who is deaf-blind must somehow make sense of the world using
the limited information available to him or her. If the person's
sensory disabilities are great, and if people in the environment
have not made an effort to order the world for him or her in a
way that makes it easier to understand, this challenge may be
overwhelming. Behavioral and emotional difficulties often accompany
deaf-blindness and are the natural outcomes of the child's or
adult's inability to understand and communicate.
People who can see and hear often take for granted the
information that those senses provide. Events such as the approach
of another person, an upcoming meal, the decision to go out, a
change in routine are all signaled by sights and sounds that allow
a person to prepare for them. The child or adult who misses these
cues because of limited sight and/or hearing may come to experience
the world as an unpredictable, and possibly a threatening place.
To a great extent, persons who are deaf-blind must depend upon
the good will and sensitivity of those around them to make their
world safe and understandable.
The challenge of learning to communicate is perhaps the
greatest one that children who are deaf-blind face. It is also
the greatest opportunity, since communication and language hold
the power to make their thoughts, needs, and desires known. The
ability to use words can also open up worlds beyond the reach
of their fingertips through the use of interpreters, books, and
an ever-increasing array of electronic communication devices.
In order to learn language, children who are deaf- blind must
depend upon others to make language accessible to them. Given
that accessibility, children who are deaf-blind face the challenges
of engaging in interactions to the best of their abilities and
of availing themselves of the language opportunities provided
for them.
A person who is deaf-blind also faces the challenge of
learning to move about in the world as freely and independently
as possible. Adult individuals also must eventually find adult
living and work situations that allow them to use their talents
and abilities in the best way possible. Many adults who are deaf-blind
lead independent or semi-independent lives and have productive
work and enjoyable social lives. The achievement of such success
depends in large part upon the education they have received since
childhood, and particularly upon the communication with others
that they have been able to develop.
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