Access
(Narrator) Who are these young adults who are deaf-blind? It's probably not the young adult on a bike delivering your morning newspaper, or bagging groceries at your local supermarket. A young adult with deaf-blindness is considered to be of a low incidence disability, which means they're not as prevalent in schools as some other disabilities. In fact, there were about forty-two hundred youth and young adults who were deaf-blind, ages 14 to 22, across all the states and territories in 2014. This is less than 2 per 1000 young adults in special education. Nearly 90% of these youth and young adult have one or more different challenges: physical, intellectual, health, beyond hearing and vision loss. As a result they typically are not identified as deaf-blind on the annual special education child count. These youth and young adults are incredibly diverse. Their sensory loss can be traced to over one hundred different etiologies, with vision loss ranging from low vision to total blindness, and hearing loss from mild to profound. Young adults who are deaf-blind want the same thing as their peers: to be included in school activities and opportunities to shape their future lives, to make choices about college, careers, and where they live. All young adults who are deaf-blind need extensive transition planning and services in order to experience any success in adult life. They need encouragement to be self-determined and make their own decisions no matter how big or small. And they need support from a network of teachers, family members, and adult service providers not only to help them develop essential skills or knowledge but to raise their expectations and spirits. The young adults who are deaf blind come from a variety of backgrounds. They have different genders, different races and ethnicities and use different modes of communication. Despite their uniqueness and individuality they all have one thing in common; the continual challenge of accessing the auditory and visual world around them. They typically need extra support and accommodations to interact with people, places, things and information. Deaf-blindness in all this complexity is a disability of access.
(Katie) Access is a really big word, I mean, it has so many different definitions. To me, access as in access to the world, access to communication, to communicating with others, access to independence as in... being able to travel independently and having the... access to technology I need. 
(Danielle) It means being able to access your environment, information, in a way that you can access it the best such as... Braille, sign language if you use it, other systems, or anything else. 
(Kevin) It's like the access as in what you are able to get to, what is out there for you. And I see it as being different kinds of access, like you have access to people or what kind of people are there as a resource. You have access to resources like organizations that have things that could promote you out there, and then it also has like, unexpected access is what I would call it. It's like when you're out in the world and you somehow manage to come across somebody that has the same disability as you or has knowledge about it and can teach you a little something about it. 
(Vicky / Interpreter) Access should be the top priority for those who are deaf-blind. We have as much right to equal and accessible communication as anyone else. Today, access for people who are deaf-blind is better than ever thanks to improvements in technology. Still, we can become isolated because we are a low-incidence population group. It's up to the deaf-blind individuals to include themselves in the deaf-blind community and to join the fight for our communication needs. 
(Debra) We have kids that can hear but yet they can't talk. And to those we start teaching them sign language also. And it's hard in the beginning but once they learn to understand what it is, and Everybody needs a mode of communication that is the most important thing in life, it's to be able to communicate so once they learn to communicate, you can see the change in them just like that. Once they learn to communicate and get their communication in place, you know, things begin to happen for them.
(Narrator) High-quality transition services are so important for students who are deaf-blind. What makes transition services high-quality? Well, they focus in the student's interests and goals, support his or her knowledge and skill development, coordinate the efforts of schools and adult service agencies, use a structured approach to planning, conducting and evaluating transition services and encourage family involvement. Each of these elements are consistent with categories identified in the taxonomy for transition planning developed by Paula Kohler. This video provides examples of how these elements apply to students that are deaf-blind.