VIDBE-Q 2026 Volume 71 Issue 1
A New Challenge
Throughout my career, I have worked with very few students that had dual
sensory loss and none of them had been totally blind. However, it was during the
2022–2023 school year that I encountered a situation which became a turning point
in my professional journey. I began working with a high school student who was
born completely blind and had recently lost their hearing, suffering a profound loss
in one ear and a mild to moderate loss in the other. This situation was especially
challenging given that their academic workload consisted primarily of Advanced
Placement courses, where rigorous content demanded that they have consistent
access. In my role as a Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, I had long relied
on visual techniques such as speechreading and maximizing visual access to
overcome auditory barriers. While these methods served most of my students well,
they proved insufficient for this particular student's complex needs. Faced with this
challenge, I recognized that I needed to expand my repertoire of strategies. I began
doing research on strategies for students who were deafblind that would enable my
student to fully access their demanding classroom environment. Although I
grappled with some self-doubt during those early weeks, my determination to
support this brilliant student only grew stronger.
A Path Forward
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