The Indiana Deafblind Services Project, located at the Blumberg Center on Indiana State University’s campus in Terre Haute, has a mission to provide services for children and young adults who have combined vision and hearing loss.
Do you know an infant or toddler who may have vision and hearing problems? Children who are deafblind can fall anywhere along a continuum made up of these five categories:
- Visually impaired and hearing impaired with vision being the primary disability
- Visually impaired and hearing impaired with hearing being the primary disability
- Deaf and visually impaired
- Blind and hearing impaired
- Deaf and blind
Over 90% of children with deafblindness have additional disabilities:
- 60% cognitive disability
- 57% physical disability
- 38% complex health care needs
- 9% behavior challenges
- 30% other
The Indiana Deafblind Services Project provides services to children from birth to age 21 as well as the family members, care providers and educators of those children.
Services include:
- Assisting in the development and implementation of appropriate education and transition programs
- Assisting families in forming networks with one another to access support and information
- Providing statewide training on issues specific to deafblindness
- Conducting site-based and child focused consultations
It is important to identify vision and hearing impairments early on. For more information, contact the Indiana Deafblind Services Project at 800-622-3035 or visit their web site.
You can also check out previous INDATA blog posts about Donald Aills, President of the Indiana Deafblind Association, or about deafblind communication devices.
