Special Education Service Agency
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DeafBlind

ELIGIBILITY FOR THE ALASKA DEAFBLIND PROJECT

As with all SESA services, the Alaska Deafblind project’s assistance is provided free-of-charge to families, schools, and community organizations. The Deafblind project is different than other programs at SESA in that it’s under a federal, rather then a state, grant. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) funds a project in each state to support and serve the needs of its Deafblind infants, children and young adults.

The Alaska Deafblind Project serves any individual from premature birth to age 22 with a hearing and vision loss as specified below. We serve those in urban as well as remote areas as well as individuals not enrolled in school and those in secondary school.

THE INDIVIDUAL MUST HAVE:

a. Deafblind means concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.

https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.8/c/2

A close-up of an eye with the pupil in the shape of Alaska.(series)

SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE ALASKA DEAFBLIND PROJECT

  • Provide functional vision assessments.
  • Provide information and training on American Sign Language, Tactile sign language, pre-symbolic communication, braille and picture and object cues.
  • Assist with the development and implementation of student's IEP or IFSP programs.
  • Support the transition into an ILP program, into school, and into adulthood.
  • Demonstrate and/or teach specialized strategies to local school personnel, parents, and community.
  • Assist educators, group homes and families in obtaining specialized instructional materials and /or in adapting available material/equipment.
  • Provide interagency liaison.
  • Provide topical in-services and workshops.
  • Provide culturally appropriate interventions.
DEAFBLIND IMAGE GALLERIES

Student Picture

Up close picture of two women, with a young deafblind student sitting in between them. All three with happy smiles on their faces and all three wearing glasses.
Young girl with dark hair, and wearing rainbow pajamas, lays face down on a shiny, blue wedge while looking down and placing both hands on an APH Mini Light Box. Two adult hands are also shown on the Light Box placing two acrylic shapes on top, a red circle and a yellow square.
Young girl with dark hair, dark brown eyes, and wearing rainbow pajamas, lays on her tummy on a shiny blue wedge. She has one hand placed on top of an APH Mini Light Box, but is looking out over it.
Young girl with dark hair, and wearing rainbow pajamas, lays on her tummy on a shiny blue wedge. She is looking directly down at an iPad with a bright yellow screen and a picture of a brightly colored giraffe, while a smiling, woman with blond hair, and wearing a blue shirt, lies beside the girl on the floor with her left arm underneath her head.
Young girl, with a big smile dressed in her snow gear and bright pink coat, walks using her long, white cane on an asphalt street in front of snow drifts piled in areas up to the roof of her school.
Young girl, with brown hair, wearing a navy blue stocking cap, colorful shirt and green pants, trails a hallway wall in her school with a long, white cane.
Young girl with dark hair and dark eyes, sits on a wide, blue floor mat while she creates a Valentine bumble bee that says, “Bee Mine” on a large, yellow APH lightbox.

TRAININGS

One woman with long red hair, stands in front of a bulletin board in a hallway, while facing another woman who is wearing a blindfold. She is holding her hands and pulls the woman wearing the blindfold to walk with her. The woman with the blindfold is very reluctant to walk.
A man wearing glasses, a black shirt and jeans, stands at the top of a flight of stairs with a woman wearing a blindfold, a grey shirt, and camouflage pants. The woman is holding on to the orange rail of the stairs, as the man looks at another woman walking up the stairs.
Two women standing at the bottom of a staircase. The woman standing on the left, has long red hair. She places her right arm around the back of the second woman, who is dressed all in black.
Two women standing in a hallway. One woman with long, red hair, wearing a brown shirt, jeans, and a vest, smiles and faces the other woman as she takes her left hand. The other woman is standing still, as if nervous to move. She is wearing a blindfold, a black shirt and black pants.
Two women walk in a school hallway. One woman in front of the other has dark, curly hair and is wearing glasses, and a dark puffy vest. The woman walking behind her is wearing a blindfold, a grey shirt, with a black puffy vest as the woman in front holds her left wrist, while leading her as she walks forward.
A woman wearing a green sweater, sits alone with her hands clasped on her lap, on a bench in a school hallway. She is wearing a blindfold and bright yellow ear plugs.
A woman wearing a black, puffy vest, and a blindfold, stands close the wall as if for support in a school hallway.
A man wearing a blindfold stand alone in a school hallway.
A woman with dark curly hair, glasses and a black, puffy vest, smiles as she looks at the camera while holding a green sweatshirt. She is in a classroom with two men around her, and various items laying on a table, including a yellow restaurant bag, packing tape, and more clothes.
A man wearing a black hat, shirt and jeans sits at a classroom table while looking at a woman with dark hair and wearing all black, holds up a black sweatshirt. They appear to be trying to figure out how to fold it using a cardboard shirt folding board that they have made.
A man with grey hair, a mustache and goatee, sits at a classroom table cutting up a piece of cardboard to make a shirt folding board, as a woman with strawberry blond hair pulled into a bun and wearing a green sweater looks on.
A woman with long, red hair stands and leans over a piece of cardboard, while a woman with short, dark hair looks on. They are in a classroom, and along with the cardboard there is a laptop computer, a cell phone, and various papers laying on the table.
Two women, one with long, dark, curly hair, the other with short red hair, both wearing glasses, and a black jacket and pants, stand smiling in front of a screen that says, “Introduction to Deafblindness – The Alaska Deafblind Project – February 21, 2024.
DEAFBLIND RESOURCES

Deafblind Information and FAQs

Deafblind Education

Deafblind Newsletters

Transition to Adulthood

ELearning

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

SESA complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA affords parents and eligible students certain rights regarding student education records, including the right to inspect and review records, request amendments, and consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information except where permitted by law. SESA may disclose appropriately designated “directory information” unless a parent or eligible student submits a written request to opt out. For more information about these rights, please see SESA’s full Notification of FERPA Rights.