CDE will be closed on Monday, July 4 for the Independence Day holiday.
STAY INFORMED: Visit CDE’s COVID-19 Resources for Schools page
You are here
Deaf-Blindness/Deaf-Blind*
COVID-19 and Special Education
View information for educators and parents to support students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Definition: A child with deaf-blindness has concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that the child cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.
Resources
- Professional Development
- Lending Library
- Colorado Resources
- National / International Resources
The Family Place
- Colorado Resources
- Other Resources
- Lending Library
- Topic Fact Sheets for Parents
What is Deaf-Blindness?
The term "deaf-blind" may also be referred to as dual sensory impairment or dual sensory loss or spelled as deaf-blind. In Colorado, we use the term deaf-blind to connote it as a unique condition and not simply a disability of vision loss plus hearing loss.
Deaf-blindness is a combination of vision and hearing loss. Deaf-blindness encompasses a spectrum from mildly hard of hearing plus mildly visually impaired to totally deaf and blind or combinations of the severity of vision and hearing loss. It is rare that an individual with deaf-blindness would be completely blind and completely deaf. Either the vision and/or the hearing loss can be present at birth or acquired.
Individuals who have a combined vision and hearing loss have unique communication, learning, and mobility challenges due to their dual sensory loss. Deaf-blindness is a unique and diverse condition due to the wide range of sensory capabilities, possible presence of additional disabilities, and the age of onset for the vision and hearing loss.
Other Disabilities
- Hearing Impairment, Including Deafness
- Multiple Disabilities
- Significant Support Needs
- Visual Impairment, Including Blindness
Colorado Deaf-Blind Project Co-Directors
Tanni Anthony
Phone: (303) 866-6681
Email Tanni Anthony
Gina Herrera
Phone: (303) 866-6605
Email Gina Herrera
Find what you were looking for?
If you have problems with broken links or accessing the content on this page, please contact our web content coordinator Amanda Timmerman at Timmerman_A@cde.state.co.us. Please copy the URL link for this page into the email when referencing the problem you are experiencing.
Connect With Us
