Community Support Service Providers

The Support Service Providers empowers the person who is deaf-blind by providing access and information. The most highly trained and accomplished person with a combined hearing-vision loss may not have a family member or a willing friend to assist with mail reading, banking, shopping or other tasks. The Support Service Providers are skilled in communicating in a variety of communication modes such as: adapted visual/tactile sign language, print-on-palm, raised alphabet card and print-to-Braille communication devices in order to communicate and accommodate individuals who are deaf-blind. In addition, the Support Service Providers are also skilled in sighted guides and other adaptations and techniques.

Services include:

  • Shopping Assistance - general or food. It is the responsibility of the individual, who is receiving this service, to select and make actual purchases. The SSP may:
    • act as a sighted guide in store
    • provide visual information: i.e., what is available, item appearance, reading labels, prices, sale info, etc.
    • assist with labeling and storing of purchases made upon arriving home
    • Mail Reading and General ReadingMatching - wardrobe, socks, etc.
    • assembly instructions
    • recipes
    • prescriptions
    • Airport, bus or train depot assistance - SSP can guide individual to the ticket counter and gate
    • Exercise - walking for health reasons
    • Housing Search
    • scan newspapers, literature
    • act as a guide for viewing
    • give a visual description of neighborhood, proximity to local stores, bus lines, etc.
  • Visiting/Socializing – reduce isolation by:
    • providing news of the outside world
    • doing chores/projects together
    • providing companionship
  • Special projects such as:
    • re-copying address book to larger font
    • marking appliances
    • troubleshooting problems with assistive/adaptive devices