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ICF Core Sets for Deafblindness

Deafblindness describes the presence of both vision and hearing difficulties of any severity across the lifespan. The Nordic Definition describes deafblindness as “a combined vision and hearing impairment of such severity that it is hard for the impaired senses to compensate for each other. Thus, deafblindness is a distinct disability”. According to the World Federation of the Deafblind, between 0.2 and 2% of the world’s population live with some form of deafblindness. Some of the most common genetic causes of deafblindness include Usher Syndrome and CHARGE Syndrome; however, most persons living with deafblindness are over the age of 65.

Deafblindness affects almost all aspects of human functioning, and can severely threaten quality of life, independence and the ability to participate. Given the heterogeneity of deafblindness, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) can serve as a common language and will prove to be helpful in standardizing the development and selection of outcome measures for service delivery with persons living with deafblindness.

The development of the ICF Core Sets for Deafblindness is a global collaborative effort. The policy lead for this project is Ricard Lopez, representing the European Deafblind Network. The scientific lead is Dr. Walter Wittich, based at the School of Optometry, Université de Montréal, Canada. Together with the World Federation of the Deafblind and Deafblind International, they brought together representatives and data from 54 countries across all six regions of the WHO.

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Online course "ICF-StARS": Enrollment is now open

Swiss Paraplegic Research and the University of Lucerne are again holding the online course "ICF-StARS". It is freely available (no cost for participating): https://www.openlearnity.org/courses/StARS/

Course objective
The course provides the basics for understanding functioning and its reporting in a standardized manner by using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

Target group
The course is aimed at interested people who work with functioning data (assessment and reporting), including healthcare professionals, researchers, students, quality managers and other professionals in the health system.

When: 22 September - 26 October 2025 (online); Enrollment is open until October 6th.
Mode: Self-study with flexible attendance
Workload: 25 hours in total, equivalent to 1 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) point
Language: English

Screenshot Photo Enrolment page

Registration
Please sign in via the official website. People without Swiss university credentials have to create a Switch edu-ID before they can enrol in the course: https://eduid.ch/.

Description
The course introduces the concept of functioning and its importance in the health system. Moreover, it gives an overview of Standardized Assessment and Reporting Systems for functioning information (StARS) based on the ICF. The course includes the introduction of a set of standards, tools and methods to assess and report information on functioning as well as the presentation of exemplary applications in practice and research.

If you have any questions about the course, feel free to contact the course organizer at the University of Lucerne: crghs@unilu.ch.

Events

Next available German-language ICF Workshops

Deutsch ICF workshop logo icf kompetenz

The next available German-language ICF workshops conducted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, Germany will take place online. The 2-day (3.5 hours/day) workshop will cover a wide range of topics and comprises a basic module as well as specific modules.

Day 1: Basic module – 8 trainings sessions in in-person trainings or 3.5 hours in online trainings
Day 2: Advanced modules (optional) – 4 training sessions in in-person trainings or 3.5 hours in online trainings

Further information about the workshops and the registration form can be found here:
http://ihrs.ibe.med.uni-muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/icf_schulung1/index.html.