Exploring Observer Agreement for the Communication Categories of the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Deafblindness Based on Video Observations from Two Cases

Individuals with congenital deafblindness (CDB) face severe challenges in communicative interactions, and it is evident from the existing research that it can also be a challenge to study these interactions. One particular challenge is the lack of standardized methods for assessing the communicative performance of the individual and how the social environment influences the performance. The ICF model provides a framework for assessing individuals’ performance in a wide range of categories, including communication. The ICF also provides a system to determine the facilitating or hindering role of social partners and other aspects of the environment on the individuals’ performance. Recently, the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Deafblindness was developed, which selected those ICF categories that are specifically relevant for this population. The present study used video observations of two cases to explore (1) to what extent the Core Set can be used to reliably classify the communication performance of individuals with CDB, and (2) the facilitating or hindering role of their communication partners on this performance. The study also assessed the usefulness and implications of the findings from the video observations by a discussion of these findings in an interpretive focus-group session with researchers and practitioners in the field of DB. Overall, the results of the study suggest that more research is needed to find reliable, valid, and practically useful ways of using the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Deafblindness as a basis for the evaluation of communicative interactions involving people with CDB.