The unique challenges of deafblindness

The Covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly had a significant impact on our daily lives, work, and social interactions. While this is a challenging time for all, patients with sensory disabilities may be particularly vulnerable. It is especially important that, during this time and that which follows, clinicians are aware of where to signpost patients. To help reach those in need, we discuss how dual sensory loss may be affecting the patients you encounter and the support which charities such as ours can offer.

Deafblindness is a unique condition, something different to a sight loss plus a hearing loss. One way to describe it is to visualise hearing impairment as the colour blue and visual impairment as the colour yellow. When the two sensory impairments, or in this case the colours blue and yellow, come together they become something new; a dual sensory impairment or, to complete the analogy, the colour green. This is a totally new colour with different properties to its two components.