What Can Be Done Differently to Enable The Social Participation Of Individuals With Deafblindness or Dual Sensory Impairment

Research Objectives To identify ways to enhance the social participation of individuals with deafblindness or dual sensory impairment. Design The exploratory study involved a scoping study followed by two qualitative research studies. Data were collected through qualitative interviews with 16 adults with deafblindness, as well as through two focus group discussions with their 16 rehabilitation service providers in India. Various accessible modes of communication were used to conduct qualitative interviews with individuals with deafblindness. Directed content analysis approach and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a framework were used to analyze the qualitative data. Setting Community and social participation settings. Participants Sixteen community-dwelling adults (18-45 years of age) with deafblindness as well as their sixteen rehabilitation service providers in India. Interventions Not applicable. It was an exploratory study. Main Outcome Measures Social participation of individuals with deafblindness Results Participants with deafblindness or dual sensory impairment identified access to information, communication, mobility, relationships, education and productivity, and recreation and leisure as important domains of life for their participation. The rehabilitation service providers suggested developing deafblind-specific rehabilitation services and assistive technology (e.g., hearing aids, cochlear implants, refreshable braille displays, magnifiers) to improve access to information, communication and social interactions, and thus to enable the social participation of individuals with deafblindness or dual sensory impairment. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the interventions should focus on enabling access to information for these individuals as it is available for their non-disabled counterparts. It is imperative for clinicians to design rehabilitation services to remove participation barriers located in the environment and focus on life domains that they value to enable the societal participation of those with deafblindness or dual sensory impairment. Author(s) Disclosures No conflict of interest to declare.