Hearing
There is a range of help and information available in Southampton for people who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. Our specialist staff can help you in assessing your needs. They can offer information and advice to help you access services relevant to your needs.
Most members of the team have some signing skills including British Sign Language (BSL), Sign Supported English (SSE) or Deafblind Manual.
The specialist staff in the team include people responsible for the assessment and issue of equipment, assessing the needs of profoundly deaf BSL users.
We offer support and advice if you have difficulty in coping with other areas of life because of your hearing difficulties, liaison with other agencies if they are better able to meet your needs and the opportunity to be registered as deaf, hard of hearing or deafblind.
The benefits of registration include concessionary bus fares, disabled persons railcard, reduced or free entry to some cinemas and other places of entertainment and entitlement to some benefits such as Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Attendance Allowance (AA).
We may be able to provide equipment on permanent loan after you have had an assessment.
Sight
If you are concerned about your sight the first step is to get an eye test. An eye test is not just about getting glasses, it is a vital health check for your eyes. If your optician cannot improve your sight with glasses they may refer you to your GP or a consultant at the Southampton eye unit.
The consultant at the eye unit will assess your vision. You may be told that you are eligible to be registered as sight impaired (partially sighted) or severely sight impaired (blind).
A certificate of visual impairment (CVI) is then completed by your consultant and a copy will be sent to us here at sensory services. We will then contact you to arrange a home visit. We will discuss the registration process with you. We will make an assessment of your sight loss needs based on our discussion with you. Registration is voluntary and many services are available if you are not registered.
There are many benefits of registering with the sensory services team.
Other visual impairment needs
Rehabilitation:
If you have difficulties with daily living skills, reading and writing, getting around indoors or outdoors then our rehab officers may be able to help you.
Insight Service:
Insight is a free 7-week course for adults who have recently experienced significant sight loss. It is for people who are not in residential care.
Deafblindness
Do you have problems with both your sight and your hearing? This is often referred to as dual sensory loss and sometimes is called deafblind. You may have had this from birth or it may have become worse as you have got older. The sensory services team can offer support and advice for people with both sight and hearing loss.
If you have problems using standard equipment to help people with hearing or sight loss, you may be able to get specialist equipment that will meet your needs.
Southampton has been able to offer a service called The Rainbow Club. This is a club that meets once a month especially for people with both sight and hearing loss. It is run jointly with Southampton Society for the Blind. In order to improve the service it is not running at the moment. This is while we make some changes to it. The sensory services team can give you up-to-date information about this. We will advertise when the club is up and running again. If you are interested in joining the club when it opens again please let us know.
Southampton City Council
