by Teresa Goddard and Elisabeth Simpson, Job Accommodation Network, Volume 10, Issue 2, Second Quarter, 2012

When you think of an individual who is deaf-blind (also known as deaf-blindness, blind-deaf, dual sensory impaired, or combined vision and hearing loss), do you think of someone who is fully deaf and fully blind? Helen Keller might be an important historical figure that comes to mind. In reality, while there are individuals who are fully deaf and fully blind, many people who are deaf-blind have some usable vision and hearing. For example, some individuals may have grown up with some degree of vision loss and experienced a change in their hearing later in life, or vice versa. Other individuals may have been born with mild to moderate deficits in both vision and hearing. Others may have experienced trauma or illness at some point in their lives that resulted in both vision and hearing loss while older adults are likely to experience age-related vision and hearing impairments.