For purposes of determining income eligibility for the NDBEDP, the FCC defines “income” and “household” as follows:

“Income” is all income actually received by all members of a household. This includes salary before deductions for taxes, public assistance benefits, social security payments, pensions, unemployment compensation, veteran’s benefits, inheritances, alimony, child support payments, worker’s compensation benefits, gifts, lottery winnings, and the like. The only exceptions are student financial aid, military housing and cost-of-living allowances, irregular income from occasional small jobs such as baby-sitting or lawn mowing, and the like.

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A “household” is any individual or group of individuals who are living together at the same address as one economic unit. A household may include related and unrelated persons. An “economic unit” consists of all adult individuals contributing to and sharing in the income and expenses of a household. An adult is any person eighteen years or older. If an adult has no or minimal income, and lives with someone who provides financial support to him/her, both people shall be considered part of the same household. Children under the age of eighteen living with their parents or guardians are considered to be part of the same household as their parents or guardians.

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The family/household income information that must be provided with this application is either 1) proof of your current participation in a federal low-income program whose income limit is below 400% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, or 2) proof of household income.

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For this program, the CVAA requires that the term “deaf-blind” has the same meaning given by the Helen Keller National Center Act.

 

In general, the individual must have a certain vision loss and a hearing loss that, combined, cause extreme difficulty in attaining independence in daily life activities, achieving psychosocial adjustment, or obtaining a vocation (working).

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Specifically, the FCC’s NDBEDP rule 64.6203(c) states that an individual who is “deaf-blind” is:

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(1) Any individual:
(i)Who has a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with corrective lenses, or a field defect such that the peripheral diameter of visual field subtends an angular distance no greater than 20 degrees, or a progressive visual loss having a prognosis leading to one or both these conditions;
(ii) Who has a chronic hearing impairment so severe that most speech cannot be understood with optimum amplification, or a progressive hearing loss having a prognosis leading to this condition; and
(iii) For whom the combination of impairments described in . . . (i) and (ii) of this section cause extreme difficulty in attaining independence in daily life activities, achieving psychosocial adjustment, or obtaining a vocation.
(2) An individual’s functional abilities with respect to using Telecommunications service, Internet access service, and advanced communications services, including interexchange services and advanced telecommunications and information services in various environments shall be considered when determining whether the individual is deaf-blind under . . . (ii) and (iii) of this section.
(3) The definition in this paragraph (c) also includes any individual who, despite the inability to be measured accurately for hearing and vision loss due to cognitive or behavioral constraints, or both, can be determined through functional and performance assessment to have severe hearing and visual disabilities that cause extreme difficulty in attaining independence in daily life activities, achieving psychosocial adjustment, or obtaining vocational objectives.

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A practicing professional who has direct knowledge of the person’s vision and hearing loss may attest to the individual's disability, examples include:

• Audiologist

• Community-based service provider

• Educator

• Hearing professional

• HKNC representative

• Medical/health professional

• School for the deaf and/or blind

• Specialist in Deaf-Blindness

• Speech pathologist

• State equipment/assistive technology program

• Vision professional

• Vocational rehabilitation counselor

 

Such professionals may also include, in the attestation, information about the individual’s functional abilities to use telecommunications, Internet access, and advanced communications services in various settings.

 

Existing documentation that a person is deaf-blind, such as an individualized education program (IEP) or a Social Security determination letter, may serve as verification of disability.