VIDBE-Q 2026 Volume 71 Issue 3
Communication
Due to the dual sensory loss, students who are deafblind have limited
access to incidental learning. Concept development needs to be addressed using
a multisensory approach that uses practice, increases opportunities, and
encourages exploration in a students preferred and accessible mode of
communication. Also, it is important to ensure appropriate communication
during activities and experience within physical education and movement
activities. Students who are deafblind may use a variety of ways to
communication from non-verbal forms such as the use of body language or
objects to verbal forms such as vocalization or American sign language (ASL).
They may require large font or specific distances to better access their vision.
Tactile signing is where the person who is deafblind will feel the shape, location,
and movement of signs made by the other person (Van Der Mark, 2023).
Protactile or (PT) is tactile communication developed by the DeafBlind
community that utilizes various forms of touch such as taps, scratches, and
direction cues to convey visual communication, emotions, and environmental
information.
In 2021, around 47 percent of students with deafblindness used corrective
lenses, 53 percent used an assistive listening device, and 45 percent used
assistive technology (National Center on Deaf-Blindness, 2021). As an adapted
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