Information Campaign on the Phenomenon of Deafblindness Covers 53 Regions of Russia

16 December 2015

A large-scale 2015 information campaign, organised by the So-edinenie Deaf-blind Support Fund with the assistance of the Art, Science and Sport Charity Foundation, has had its results summarized. The aim of the project was to raise public awareness of deafblindness and promote citizen participation in the first census of deaf-blind people.

The following events were organised to achieve those objectives in 53 regions of the Russian Federation: outdoor advertising, social advertising on federal and regional TV channels, broadcasting social announcements via online TV and providing information in more populous areas.

Within the 12-month period the campaign succeeded to identify and collect the data of more than 2.5 thousand people. More than half of deafblind (59%) people are aged 61 to 90 years. Another major age category represents people 31 to 60 years old (31%). 72% of deafblind live with their families, and 24% live on their own. 10% of deafblind are employed, and 17% of them would like to find a job. 28% of them wish to learn how to use a computer, and 12% of them wish to learn how to use a mobile phone. 9% of them want to learn Braille, 6% of them want to learn the dactyl alphabet or sign language, 5% of them want to learn self-service skills. In addition, the study identified other facts varying from causes of deafblindness to the favourite hobbies of people with the two sensory defects.

Based on these results, the Deaf-blind Support Fund So-edinenie is planning to create collective and individual programmes for training, social adjustment, and development for deafblind people together with improving their lives in the future.

The Art, Science and Sport Charity Foundation has been a partner of So-edinenie since 2014.

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