Adult Resource Guide

Contents:

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General / Comprehensive Resources

  • See also our FAQ Page for general information about deafblindness.
  • Sense Publications List
    Internet: http://www.sense.org.uk/deafblind/resources.html
    Description: A list of factsheets and articles related to DeafBlindness.
  • Minnesota Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division - Services and Resources for Consumers
    Internet: http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/ECS/dhhs/consumer.htm
    Description: "Whether you are culturally deaf, oral deaf, late deafened, hard of hearing, deafblind, or a friend, coworker, or family member of a person with hearing loss, you’ve come to the right place. Here you can find information about services designed to meet your needs. Learn about assistive technology, sign language interpreters, your legal rights, and more."
  • Children's Books About Disabilities
    Internet: http://ericec.org/fact/kidbooks.html
    Description: Grouped by age group/grade level, these books help siblings and classmates understand what it is like to live with a disability. Grandchildren and other young loved ones may benefit from these stories.

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Diagnosis / Identification of Dual Sensory Impairment

  • See also What are the Causes of DeafBlindness? on our FAQ page.
  • Sight & Hearing Association
    Internet: http://www.sightandhearing.org
    Description: "nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing the needless loss of vision and hearing through effective screening, education, and research. This site provides public information about vision and hearing topics as well as information regarding our products and services."
  • Hearing Loss Simulator
    Internet: http://www.sphr.pdx.edu/projects/hearingsimulator/index.htm
    Description: Provides a way to get a general idea of what the world may sound like to a person with hearing loss, based on his or her audiogram pattern. Please note auditory perception varies across individuals; two people with the same audiogram on paper may experience sound differently.
  • Deaf/Hard of Hearing Terms and Definitions
    Internet: http://www.handsandvoices.org/resource_guide/19_definitions.html
    Description: "some terms and their definitions that you may come across as you learn about deaf and hard of hearing issues."
  • Book: Coping With Vision Loss: Maximizing What You Can See and Do
    Publisher: Hunter House; ISBN: 0897933168; (March 30, 2001)
    Description: "explains fundamental facts about eyes, vision, and vision rehab, including causes and varieties of diseases that destroy vision, skills that the partially sighted person must learn, and valuable low vision aids. The book also discusses how others with low vision have coped with eye fatigue and pain, as well as the emotional problems that come with the struggle to attain a level of function that many take for granted.
  • Book: The "Madness" of Usher's: Coping With Vision And Hearing Loss
    Publisher: Business of Living Publications; ISBN: 1879518066; (February 1991)
    Description: "This book is about a lifetime of ongoing personal adjustments and functional adaptation. The author explores the fear and emotional chaos brought on by a dual sensory loss… presents graphic insight into her personal "madness"...reveals her personal philosophy of emotional survival… furnishes practical how-to's for functional management."
  • Book: Orchid of the Bayou: A Deaf Woman Faces Blindness
    Publisher: Gallaudet University Press; ISBN: 1563681048; (March 2001)
    Description: "In graduating from Gallaudet University, finding a job in Washington, D.C., and starting a family with her college sweetheart, Kitty Fischer tacitly abandoned the Louisiana Cajun culture that had exposed her to little more than prejudice and misery as a child… While Fischer struggled to come to terms with her condition, the high incidence of Usher syndrome among Cajun people led her to re-examine her cultural roots."

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Communication and Technology

  • See also
  • Minnesota Interpreter Referral Web Site
    Internet: http://www.interpreterreferral.org
    Description: "information about sign language interpreters, how to use them and how to find them… created to help ensure that all Minnesotans are able to locate needed sign language interpreter services"
  • 101 Ways to Use Braille
    Internet: http://www.nfb.org/bm/bm99/bm990309.htm
    Description: Easy, low-tech ways to use braille in your daily life, even if you only know the basic braille alphabet.
  • Tack-Tiles¨ Braille Systems
    Internet: http://www.tack-tiles.com
    Description: "a sophisticated teaching tool for all ages based on LEGO®-type blocks. These Braille blocks provide a unique bridge, a smoother, shorter, more interesting path to Braille literacy."
  • Assistive Technology
    Internet: http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/ECS/dhhs/technology.htm
    Description: Information about technology for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or have a speech or mobility impairment. Includes assistive listening devices, special telephone technology, relay service, and the telephone equipment distribution program. From the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
  • Assistive Equipment and Technology Fact Sheet
    Internet: http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/ECS/dhhs/PDF/assttech.pdf
    Description: Definitions and examples of several types of technologies used by people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard-of-hearing. Includes alerting devices, telecommunication devices, assistive listening devices, and captioning. Available online in PDF format, or in other forms for people with disabilities by calling (651) 296-3980 Voice, or (651) 297-1506 TTY.
  • Assistive Listening Devices
    Internet: http://www.main.org/accessarts/ald.htm
    Description: Covers the basics: What is an assistive listening system?, What does it do?, Who uses it?, Four basic systems, Types of headsets, Types of receivers, How do assistive listening systems work?, Directory of manufacturers and vendors.
  • Effective Interaction: Communicating With and About People with Disabilities in the Workplace
    Internet: http://www.dol.gov/odep/pubs/fact/effectiveinteraction.htm
    Description: Clear advice about how to interact with a person who has a visual, hearing, mobility, or cognitive disability.

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Disability Rights

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Support and Advocacy

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Recreation

  • See also Self-Determination on our FAQ Page, and Consumer Advocacy Groups on our Tools for Independence page.
  • Recreation and Leisure Fact Sheet
    Internet: http://www.tr.wou.edu/dblink/lib/rec-les.htm
    Description: "Practical information on how to get people who are deaf-blind with cognitive disabilities involved with recreational activities. The focus is on recreational activities for pre-adolescent children through adult." Includes steps required to develop a recreational plan, examples of recreation activities with different people who are deaf-blind, extensive resource list.
  • Yoga for the Deafblind
    Internet: http://www.deafblindinternational.org/review/dipti_karnad.html
    Description: Yoga can be beneficial to people of all ages, abilities, and sizes. "In this article Dipti Karnad describes the way in which the teaching and learning of yoga is making a real contribution to the lives of deafblind children at the Sadhana Unit for Deafblind Children at the Clarke School for the Deaf, Chennai, India." Yoga can be beneficial to people of all ages, abilities, and sizes.
  • Hadley School for the Blind - Correspondence Courses
    700 Elm Street
    Winnetka, IL 60093-2554 USA
    Toll-Free: 1-800-323-4238 Voice
    (847) 446-0855 Fax
    E-mail: Info@Hadley-School.org
    Internet: http://www.hadley-school.org
    Description: "Hadley has a course for you if you are a blind adult (14+ years of age), a parent or grandparent of a blind child, a family member of an adult who is blind, or a (para)professional in the blindness field. The Hadley School for the Blind offers more than 90 distance education courses to eligible students completely free of charge." Current course listing is on the Hadley web site, and is also available by mail in alternate formats. Designed to focus blind and visually impaired people, but many of the courses can be helpful to DeafBlind people and their friends, families, and professionals.
  • BrailleChess.Net
    Internet: http://www.braillechess.net
    Resources to help deafblind and blind people learn and play chess accessibly. This web site is run by James Gallagher (who is Deafblind) and Mario Lang (who is blind).

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Financial Assistance

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