Educational Programming for Students Who are Deafblind: Position Statement

Historians have described the characteristics of the field of deafblindness by examining its roots in the fields of blindness, deafness and in multiple disabilities (Collins, 1995; Enerstvedt, 1996; Fish, 1934; Hart, 2006; McInnes, 1999). Deafblindness is a unique field because it relies upon practices from the aforementioned disciplines to meet the complex communication and programming needs of individuals with very diverse conditions. However beyond its formation from multiple bases of knowledge, the deafblindness field has developed some unique characteristics which extend beyond its parent fields and it may be argued that this expansion comes from the needs of students who are deafblind themselves. Helen Keller, who is widely recognized as the most famous person to have deafblindness, represents an example of a gifted individual who happened to be deafblind. Demographic data offers a more accurate picture of the wide ranging span of abilities and needs of children and adults who have combined vision and hearing loss