Building Bridges of Access:
Teaming, Transition, Outcomes
Toni Hollingsworth, Director, MS Hearing-Vision Project
Toni.hollingsworth@usm.edu
Emily Taylor-Snell, Project Coordinator, Florida and Virgin Islands
Deaf-Blind Collaborative, etsnell74@gmail.com
Michael Fagbemi, Project Specialist, Helen Keller National Center/
National Consortium on Deafblindness, Mike.fagbemi@hknc.org
Martha Veto, Project Coordinator, Georgia Sensory Assistance
Project, mveto@uga.edu
Deaf-Blindness (DB) is a disability of access to people, places and information.
A person with combined hearing and vision loss may also have other disabilities. Due
to the heterogeneous nature of deaf-blindness, it creates unique challenges for
systems, educators and families. It is not uncommon that a young adult who is
deafblind is often the only such student in their entire school district! For young
adults who use sign language, reduction in visual acuity or visual fields can impact
adversely on their ability to understand or be understood. Young adults who can use
speech also face isolation because facilitating communication is so difficult in noisy
environments.
The challenges of access to people, places and
information play a major role in the lack of opportunities
to make friends and establish meaningful relationships.
Neighboring states discovered that the challenges young
I learned that it is my responsibility to
be my own advocate. I need to look
into my future and make goals.
-Young Adult
Participant
58