SECTION 1 - What are the Legal Definitions for Learners with Deafblindness?

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004) that was passed into law this year has maintained the definition of learners (including infants, toddlers, children, and youth) with deafblindness as written in the Federal Register (1991). Learners with deafblindness are defined as:

    . . . having auditory and visual impairments, the combination of which creates such severe communication and other developmental and learning needs that they cannot be appropriately educated in special education programs solely for children and youth with hearing impairments, visual impairments, or severe disabilities, without supplementary assistance to address their educational needs due to these dual concurrent disabilities (Pub. L. No. 108-448, 118 Stat. 2647 (2004); 20U.S.C. §§ 1400 et seq.).

Many states choose the federal definition to identify learners with deaf-blindness; however, other states choose to create their own definition for learners with deafblindness.

The State of Indiana chose to use the federal definition to identify learners with deafblindness. The Indiana definition also includes the addition of a "functional" description. This description defines learners with deafblindness as:

Students with severe multiple disabilities due to generalized central nervous system dysfunction, who exhibit auditory and visual impairments or deficits in auditory-visual functioning, and who may demonstrate inconclusive responses during hearing and vision evaluations or inconsistent responses to auditory and visual stimuli in the environment (511 IAC 7-26-4).

In addition, Indiana includes:

Students with hearing and visual impairments of a mild to severe degree with additional learning or language disabilities that adversely affect educational performance and/or who may have been diagnosed as having a degenerative pathology or a disease that will affect visual or hearing acuity (511 IAC 7-26-4).

The Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Young Adults (HKNC) also has a definition of youths and adults with deafblindness that is included in The Helen Keller Act (U.S. Code, Title 29 Labor, Chapter 21, Sec. 1905). (This definition applies to the Helen Keller National Center for Youths and Adults who are Deaf-Blind, its affiliates, and networks.) Individuals who are deafblind are defined as:

    (2) . . . any individual-

(A)(i) who has a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with corrective lenses, or a field defect such that the peripheral diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees, or a progressive visual loss having a prognosis leading to one or both of these conditions:

(ii) who has a chronic hearing impairment so severe that most speech cannot be understood with optimum amplification, or a progressive hearing loss having a prognosis leading to this condition; and

(iii) for whom the combination of impairments described in clauses (i) and (ii) cause extreme difficulty in attaining independence in daily life activities, achieving psychosocial adjustment, or obtaining a vocation;

(B) who despite the inability to be measured accurately for hearing and vision loss due to cognitive or behavioral constraints, or both, can be determined through functional and performance assessment to have severe hearing and visual disabilities that cause extreme difficulty in attaining independence in daily life activities, achieving psychosocial adjustment, or obtaining vocational objectives; or

(C) meets such other requirements as the Secretary may prescribe by regulation; and

    (3) the term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Education.

The federal and state definitions of deafblindness guide family members, service providers, and educators in determining eligibility for deafblind services, preparing for educational outcomes of learners, and providing training and support to learners, their family members, and educators.

What is most important to remember is that deafblindness does not mean that learners are totally deaf or totally blind. The majority of learners with deafblindness have some degree of residual (e.g., useful, yet not necessarily clear) vision and/or hearing. This also includes learners who are deafblind with multiple disabilities (e.g., physical, cognitive, medical, etc.). It has been often said that deafblindness is not a sum of a learner's vision and hearing loss (vision + hearing). Instead, it is a product of a learner's vision and hearing loss (vision x hearing) that creates unique challenges for communicative interactions, cognitive development, and social relationships.

Task for Completion and Discussion #1:

Write a brief description of the key features or characteristics of learners with deafblindness for one of the above definitions. Describe, as if you were in charge of writing the definition, whether you feel there need to be any deletions or additions about the characteristics of learners with deafblindness. Give the reasons why you would make these changes in your description.

For More Information:

If you would like further information about the federal or state definitions of deafblindness click on one of the resource links below.

    DB-LINK: The National Clearinghouse on Children Who Are Deaf-Blind
    Type in the URL: http://www.dblink.org/
    Click on the question: What Is Deaf-Blindness?
    Scroll down the page and click on the link: Selected Topics
    Click on the link: Definitions
    Click on the link: Databases of Definitions Used by State Deaf-Blind Projects to Determine Eligibility-Search by State

    Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Children and Youths
    Type in the URL: http://www.hknc.org
    Click on the link: Who We Serve

    Indiana Deafblind Services Project
    Type in the URL: http://www.indstate.edu/blumberg/db/deafblind.htm
    Click on the link: Definition of Deafblindness