Thank you.

My name is Karen Madho. I'm with DeafBlind Ontario Services. I want to express my thanks to you for inviting me here today to share our perspective.

I want to start by mentioning that the 2022 Canadian survey on disability data from Statistics Canada confirms that just over 2% of Canadians 15 years of age and older are deaf-blind. That's just over 600,000 people.

Of those who are deaf-blind, 52%, or just over 300,000 people, are 65 years and older. This part of the population that experiences both vision and hearing loss—dual sensory loss—are seniors who are experiencing this hearing and vision loss as part of the aging process.

Of the estimated 1.5%—or 120,000—of Canadians who live with developmental disabilities, as per the Canadian survey on disability data, approximately 0.2%, or 240, are deaf, hard of hearing or use non-traditional forms of communication.

DeafBlind Ontario Services supports people who are deaf-blind, as well as those living with a developmental disability who are deaf or hard of hearing or who use non-traditional forms of communication. Our specialized services are customized to each person's unique needs, methods of communication and goals to live their best life. Our reach extends into remote communities and urban centres across the province of Ontario, with supported living homes and community services. We draw on our 35 years of experience, as well as evidence-based practices, to offer the highest quality of services to the people we support.

Deaf-blindness is a combination of both hearing and vision loss that is unique to each person. It impacts their ability to access information, their communication and their mobility. For someone to be considered legally blind, their visual acuity would be 20 over 200 in both eyes. For someone who is legally deaf, they may have little or no functioning hearing.

Our team of professionals whom we employ on the front lines assists with communication. Among them are intervenors, who are specially trained professionals that provide visual and auditory information to people who are deaf-blind to help them have more of a sense of social connectedness in their lives.

People that we support who live with developmental disabilities and are deaf, hard of hearing or use non-traditional forms of communication receive supports from direct support professionals. They support and empower that person to learn concepts and skills, gather information, and develop communication and language.

For the people we support, living their best life can mean many different things. With an intervenor or a direct support professional, it's about receiving information about the environment. It's about receiving the contextual information and understanding what's around them. If someone is walking down the street with their communication support, is it a busy street? What are those sounds that they're picking up from some residual hearing? Maybe it's music from a nearby restaurant. There are kids running down the street laughing as they pass by.

All of those contextual pieces are what an intervenor, for example, would be sharing with a person who's deaf-blind.

For example, to one person we support, it's all about independence. It means developing the skills she needs to travel on a bus in her community. This is something she's identified as a goal. That would mean getting a bus pass, working together with her intervenor to get that together. It's planning trips, taking new practice rides to learn the routes and searching up local attractions with her intervenor so that she can be a bit more independent.

With varying degrees of sensory loss, each person would use their own unique and individual way to communicate. They may use one or more methods of communication.

We have some recommendations we want to share on how to promote inclusion. For us, it really means recognizing deaf-blindness as a distinct disability, legally and in policies.

Include deaf-blindness in Statistics Canada surveys, so that data could be collected and could be used for policies and funding decisions.

Offer intervenor services across Canada. No matter where you live, you shouldn't be restricted in having these really valuable services.

Include people with lived experience in all aspects of society, including planning, policies and funding. That's critical, and it would mean that you are also accommodating their communication needs. That's very important,

Include seniors with dual sensory loss in any pan-Canadian policy framework so that they can participate in their communities as fully as possible.

Ensure that all accessible formats are available for the people we support. That would mean ensuring that the person can access information in any method of communication that they require, of course with the support of a specially trained intervenor or direct support professional.

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