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The New England Consortium on Deafblindness (NEC) defines deafblindness as: combined vision and hearing loss, which may challenge a person’s ability to communicate, interact with others, access information, and move about safely.

What is Deafblindness?

What age does DeafBlindness occur?

Deafblindness can occur at any age! While some are born Deafblind, others are deaf first before acquiring blindness, or blind first before acquiring deafness. The timeline of an individual’s disability drastically affects their language use and comfortability with different forms of communication.

Tactile American Sign Language

Deafblind signers use tactile American Sign Language (tASL) which they understand by placing a hand over the dominant hand of a signing partner while their signing partner signs. They understand the entirety of the language through the top of the dominant hand this way. tASL is a separate and distinct language from English. It has its own rules for pronunciation, word formation, and word order, and is not simply a "signed" version of English.

Existing Assistive Technology

Tatum1

Tatum1 is the first tool that translates English into tactile ASL granting DeafBlind individuals independent access to the weather, time, news, messaging and calling!

Learn more here!

What support services are available?

Are interpreter services easily accessible?

Interpreters are the main communication method for people with DeafBlindness, but interpreter costs can range around $75-150 per hour. While the help of interpreters are not replaceable, an interpreter is not enough to support DeafBlind people 24/7.