About deafblindness

Deafblindness is a combination of vision and hearing impairments, which may be present at birth or developed later in life.

Many deafblind people are not totally deaf and totally blind, but have some remaining hearing and/or vision.

However, 95% of what we learn about the world comes through sight and hearing, so not having full use of both senses makes it extremely difficult to learn and develop, and to communicate with others.

There are an estimated 2.5 million deafblind people in the world, and 25% of them (603,000) live in the countries where Sense International works.

Fewer than 1% of deafblind people in these countries receive any kind of support at all, much less the specialised education and services they need to communicate and to live active lives.

In developing countries, without support, four out of five children who are both deaf and blind die before their fifth birthday.