About Deafblind Scotland

In 2001 Deafblind Scotland became an independent Scottish Charity, having previously been a region of Deafblind UK - founded in 1928 to help deafblind people and their families cope with the problems associated with this profound disability.
 
All services are aimed at reducing isolation and dependence on others. Through a network of trained regional workers and volunteers, each deafblind person is provided with the services or help they require.

The charity strives to improve the quality of deafblind people’s lives by providing social and educational activities. The National Training and Rehabilitation Centre trains deafblind people to develop new skills.

Among the courses are Can’t Cook, Don’t Have To Cook; or how to prepare nutritious food without cooking.

Assertiveness, Crafts, Chess, Beat the Blues, an exercise class and new sporting experiences, Creative Writing, Gardening and Health and Beauty.

Deafblind people are taken shopping and to outside activities. Most cannot communicate without someone trained to interpret what people are saying. In fact, unless someone takes the time to talk to them, 90 per cent of what is happening around them, even in their own homes, is inaccessible to them.

As most deafblind people cannot access the media, Deafblind Scotland provides quarterly newsletters and fortnightly Rainbow Snippets, this is articles culled from the press, in the format most appropriate to the deafblind person.

This can be Braille, Moon or greatly enlarged type. For people with a degree of hearing this can be on tape.

Clubs are part of the service and active people join the Doers Club which, has been swimming, skiing and mountaineering. For the less active there is the Rainbow Club for gentler activities or somewhere to meet friends and other deafblind people.

Deafblind Scotland also organises specialist holidays for deafblind people and their families in places where they can relax and enjoy the break.

Visits are arranged to doctors, dentists and for their pets, to the vets. Deafblind Scotland tries at all times to make life as normal as possible for people who cannot see or hear but who have to live in a seeing hearing world.

Our history

Deafblind Scotland is a relatively new charity, formed in 2001 because the directors felt to be independently Scottish was the way forward in a changing UK. Social Services are developing differently north and south of the border. 

It continues to work closely with Deafblind UK having previously been the regional office of that charity. Deafblind Scotland works supporting Scotland’s deafblind people and encouraging the statutory organisations to provide better services for deafblind people.

Previously it had been part of Deafblind UK, the world’s oldest charity working with people who have a severe dual sensory impairment. Founded in 1928 as the National Deafblind Helper’s League by a small group of deafblind people, it has grown to become the UK’s leading authority on acquired deafblindness. Deafblind Scotland shares this distinction.