Does the word “deaf-blind” mean a person is fully deaf and fully blind?
No. Most people who are deaf-blind have a combination of vision and hearing loss. They usually have some useful but not always reliable vision and hearing. Some people have little or no useable hearing and vision. For example, a person may be born deaf or hard of hearing and lose his or vision later in life. Another person may grow up as a blind or visually impaired person and experience a hearing loss later. Some people are born with combined vision and hearing loss, or lose their vision and hearing at an early age. Two federal definitions of deaf-blindness exist. One is used in primarily in education, and the other in rehabilitation. To read more about these definitions, you can visit The National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness website at http://www.nationaldb.org/ISSelectedTopics.php?topicCatID=6.
