1. Communication with deaf-blind persons

“Blindness separates people from things; deafness separates people from people.”  - Helen Keller (probably the most world famous deaf-blind American woman, 1880–1968)

Deaf-blindness means a combination of both sensory disabilities and it creates a very specific situation, as the deaf and blind people cannot use either of the two senses and must find or develop completely different means of communication, usually based on touching and tactile perception. Some deaf-blind people are not completely deaf or blind; actually, there are very few completely deaf-blind. Usually the deaf-blind have a combination of hearing and visual impairment.

How to communicate with deaf-blind person

  • Tactile sign language (when we sign, the deaf-blind person can hold our hands and read individual signs)
  • Visualisation of spoken language (expressive pronunciation that can be lip read from a very close range)
  • TADOMA system (the deaf-blind person places their thumb on the speaker’s lips and their fingers along the jawline.
  • LORM (tactile alphabet: every letter is expressed by moves or touches on an open palm; a special white glove with LORM alphabet could be used as a template)
  • Other individually prefered systems

 All of these systems require unusual nearness and tactile contact. Therefore one must tolerate stepping over psychological or hygienic boundaries.

You can watch the example od using TADOMA system on this video: