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Center for Literacy and Disability Studies

CB#7335, UNC Chapel Hill
Suite 1100 Bondurant Hall
321 South Columbia Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7335
Phone: (919) 966-8566
Fax: (919) 843-3250
clds@unc.edu

 

 
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The North Carolina Deaf-Blind Project

Each state has a Deaf-Blind (DB) project that serves the children (birth-22) with deaf-blindness in their state.  In order to receive support and services from the DB project, the children with deaf-blindness need to be identified and counted on the state census.  North Carolina has a state Deaf-Blind project that is directed by Chris Jones at the Department of Public Instruction.  Once students are identified on the North Carolina Deaf-Blind census, the Exceptional Children's Department can offer special services to students, parents and educators, such as technical assistance, consultation, and inservice trainings.  For more information about the state project go to: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/instructional/deafblind.

Definition of Deaf-Blindness

Individuals who have both a vision and hearing impairment of a particular degree are considered to have deaf-blindness.   Usually individuals with deaf-blindness need
specialized adaptations, modifications, and strategies to successfully interact and engage with others at home, school or work.
When we hear the term "deaf-blindness," the story of Helen Keller often comes to mind. While she was deaf-blind, the severity of her hearing and vision loss is NOT necessary in order to be considered as deaf-blind.  An individual with deaf-blindness might have any one of the following hearing impairments: mild, moderate, severe or profound hearing loss, central auditory processing disorder.  An individual with deaf-blindness might also have any one of the following vision impairment: low vision, legally blind, total blindness, cortical vision impairment.  The main criteria are that the individual has both a hearing and vision impairment.
The following definitions are used by the government to describe children with deaf-blindness.

“Deaf blindness means concomitant hearing and vision impairments, the
combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental
and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education
programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness”. (IDEA,
2004)

“Concomitant hearing and vision impairments or delays, the combination of which
causes such severe communication and other developmental and intervention needs
that specialized early intervention services are needed”.  (IDEA, 2004)

Registering Students on the North Carolina Deaf-Blind Census

In order to be registered on the North Carolina Deaf-Blind Census, students must be certified as having a vision impairment and a hearing impairment of varying degree. Reports from doctors, teachers of the hearing impaired, teachers of the visually impaired, other related service providers, and/or classroom teacher reports can be used to document dual sensory impairments. DB census student forms need to be completed, along with the appropriate documentation of students’ vision and hearing impairments, and returned to Chris Jones, State DB Project Director at the Department of Public Instruction.  To download these forms, go to: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/instructional/deafblind/census