DeafBlind Awareness Week runs June 25 through July 1, 2026. The annual observance is timed to Helen Keller’s birthday on June 27 and is coordinated nationally by the Helen Keller National Center for DeafBlind Youths and Adults. The week is a moment to focus on the lives, rights, and needs of DeafBlind Americans — a community that is part of the Deaf community, part of the blind community, and often underrepresented in both.
What DeafBlind Means
The term DeafBlind describes individuals who have combined hearing and vision loss. The combination can range widely: some DeafBlind individuals have no functional hearing or vision; others have partial hearing, partial vision, or both. The specific combination shapes which communication methods work best — tactile ASL, print on palm, braille, or other tactile methods — and which support services are essential.
DeafBlind individuals in the United States are protected under the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and specifically under the Helen Keller National Center Act, which established the Helen Keller National Center (HKNC) to provide vocational and rehabilitation services. Support service providers — trained professionals who give sighted guide assistance, communication, and environmental information support — are a critical access service for many DeafBlind individuals and remain chronically understaffed nationally.
Why This Week Matters
DeafBlind Awareness Week exists because the DeafBlind community is often absent from conversations that nominally include it. Deaf advocacy organizations sometimes center hearing loss without accounting for combined vision loss. Blind advocacy organizations sometimes center visual access without accounting for the absence of audio alternatives. Policy conversations about captioning, ASL interpreting, or audio description rarely address the combined-access needs of DeafBlind users, who may need none of those alone — or several at once, in coordination.
The Olmstead decision that protects Deaf and disabled Americans’ right to live in their communities applies with equal force to DeafBlind individuals. The ADA Title II digital accessibility rules affect DeafBlind users who depend on accessible web content. The policy environment shaping Deaf community access in 2026 is the same environment shaping DeafBlind community access — the communities are not separate.
2026 Virtual Events
The Helen Keller National Center and partner organizations are hosting virtual programming throughout DBAW 2026. Among the events this week, the DeafBlind Community of Mississippi is hosting a birthday observance on June 26 in honor of Helen Keller’s June 27 birthday. HKNC regional offices, national partners, and affiliate organizations are running programming throughout the week.
For the full event schedule and participation information, visit the Helen Keller National Center at helenkeller.org. Events are virtual; registration details are available through HKNC and its partners.
How to Connect with Resources
For DeafBlind individuals, families, educators, and advocates looking for resources, two DM pages are relevant starting points. The /library section surfaces academic and archival resources on Deaf and DeafBlind topics from sources including the Internet Archive and PubMed. The /advocacy page tracks current disability and Deaf-rights policy actions at the federal level, including Olmstead enforcement, Medicaid access, and digital accessibility rules that directly affect DeafBlind Americans.
If you have a tip, resource, or event related to DeafBlind Awareness Week that should be on DM’s radar, the contact form is open. DBAW runs through July 1.