Deafblindness is a low incidence disability that describes individuals with varying degrees of vision and hearing losses.
Interveners, by contributing communication and information, provide a medium through which deaf-blind individuals can link to the people, things and events in the world.
[2] An interventer is typically a paraeducator who has received specialized, in-depth training in deaf-blindness and works one-to-one with an infant, child, or youth.
Working under the guidance and direction of a student's classroom teacher or another individual responsible for ensuring the implementation of the student's IEP, an intervener's primary roles are to:[3] The concept of intervener services for individuals who are deaf-blind arose in Canada in the 1970s,[5] and has been developing as a practice in the U. S. over the past two decades[when?].
Formal and informal collaborations are leading towards the development of a stronger national infrastructure to support this practice.