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Deafblind

Since 1993 the Mason Perkins Deafness Fund has expanded its horizons to include deaf-blind children in the objectives of its association. Deaf-blind children are entitled to the same sort of privileges and advantages accorded other children. We hold that not being able to see nor hear shouldn’t be an impediment to their potential. Here at MPDF we are looking to blaze trails in this area. Here is what we are doing for the deafblind children of Italy.

» Click here for information about Usher syndrome

Community Involvement

Another important effort has been to sensitise and involve the deaf world. Fulbright Scholarship winner Dr Steve Collins of Gallaudet University, himself deaf and recognized worldwide for his training of deafblind interpreters and for his ground-breaking research in deafblind tactile sign language, came to Italy in the Spring of 2000 and again in 2005.

Steven Collins made a big impact during his six months here, working with the Lega del Filo d’Oro on a curriculum for deaf-blind interpreter training, and with the ENS (National Association of the Deaf) to push for recognition that signing deafblind people are a part of the deaf community and that deaf people can be trained to be extraordinary teachers of deaf-blind children and, in certain circumstances, interpreters. He has subsequently been invited back to give several workshops on this topic. Here are some examples of the impact he has made in regard to increasing awareness about the deafblind community.

Consulting Services

Since 1991 the MPDF has been consultant to a project with the USL-3 of Perugia and in particular Daniela Toccaceli, who has been working with a congenitally deaf-blind child from the age of 1 ½ using tactile sign language. The child, now 12, is functioning at grade level and is fully integrated both scholastically and socially by playing and interacting with her peers and teachers who have learned sign language as a second language. This successful project will be diffused throughout Europe and the United States.

Future Objectives

This sort of progress has encouraged us to fix our sights on the future objective of setting up a deaf-blind communication services department within MPDF, to conduct linguistic research on tactile sign language, to serve as a resource/information centre on tactile sign communication for interested people in Italy, and to produce materials critical for deafblind children, their families and the professionals that work with them.