Deafblindness is more than the addition of hearing impairment plus vision impairment. The absence or impairment of both distance senses gives a condition which is more disabling than the sum of each. Deafblindness is ...Deafblindness is more than the addition of hearing impairment plus vision impairment. The absence or impairment of both distance senses gives a condition which is more disabling than the sum of each. Deafblindness is rare among young people but becomes frequent at higher ages. Deafblindness can be either congenital or acquired. The heterogeneity of the population has been reported to be huge. Different levels of vision and hearing loss, different use of language modality, different kinds and severity of additional disabilities, and different medical aetiology are some of the variables splitting the group. Research in deafblindness is still in it is advent due to a number of limitations and a lack of current scientific interest. Some of the challenges in deafblindness research are: lack of consensus on the definition of deafblindness; rareness of the condition which makes it difficult to even gather just a small group to study; heterogeneity of the population; difficulties with using traditional functional assessment procedures; communication barriers; and the difficulties of interpretation of deafblind behavior. This editorial calls for more interest in deafblindness in general and for more international cooperation and innovative studies to overcome existing barriers: Cooperation on data collection to form big enough sample sizes; development of reliable and valid tests and assessment tools; development of new research methods and approaches.展开更多
文摘Deafblindness is more than the addition of hearing impairment plus vision impairment. The absence or impairment of both distance senses gives a condition which is more disabling than the sum of each. Deafblindness is rare among young people but becomes frequent at higher ages. Deafblindness can be either congenital or acquired. The heterogeneity of the population has been reported to be huge. Different levels of vision and hearing loss, different use of language modality, different kinds and severity of additional disabilities, and different medical aetiology are some of the variables splitting the group. Research in deafblindness is still in it is advent due to a number of limitations and a lack of current scientific interest. Some of the challenges in deafblindness research are: lack of consensus on the definition of deafblindness; rareness of the condition which makes it difficult to even gather just a small group to study; heterogeneity of the population; difficulties with using traditional functional assessment procedures; communication barriers; and the difficulties of interpretation of deafblind behavior. This editorial calls for more interest in deafblindness in general and for more international cooperation and innovative studies to overcome existing barriers: Cooperation on data collection to form big enough sample sizes; development of reliable and valid tests and assessment tools; development of new research methods and approaches.
