Nazar Strejko likes to play the drums.

A few years ago, the 77-year-old retiree took lessons on how to play the instrument and can do so confidently — despite being both deaf and blind.

Strejko has Usher syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that causes vision and hearing loss over time. He has some hearing using a cochlear implant but is blind.

He lives at the Canadian Helen Keller Centre’s residential facility in North York and is completely independent with the help of the centre’s intervenor staff.

“I can do a lot of things when I have intervenor services,” he said through intervenor Lacey McMaster. “For example, today I’ll be going to the gym and will do other things, too. I can go out anywhere I want.”

An intervenor is professionally trained to provide auditory and visual information to persons who are deaf-blind. They act as the eyes and ears, providing information about the environment and surrounding circumstances to their client.

Depending on the level of vision and hearing loss an individual has, different communication methods are used, said Canadian Helen Keller Centre executive director Jennifer Robbins.

For Strejko, he uses “two-hand manual” to communicate. The sign language uses points on the hand to identify letters in the alphabet, so the users spell everything to communicate.

“Deaf-blind people can do anything. They can participate in society, they can be active members of their communities with intervenor supports and they’re just like you and me,” Robbins said. “They certainly have opportunities for independence.”

McMaster is one of more than 50 full-time and part-time intervenors the centre employs to look after the 16 residents in its Willowdale Avenue residence and 18 outside members who use the service.

She previously worked in textbook publishing when she decided to seek a career change and came across an intervenor program at George Brown College in Toronto.

“I thought it sounded like the most different thing possible to what I was doing at the time,” McMaster said. “It looked rewarding and looked like every day would be different, which it is.”

One of the biggest misconceptions about the deaf-blind community is that they need 24-hour support.

The Canadian Helen Keller Centre is working to fight back against those misconceptions by raising awareness about the deaf-blind community, Robbins said.

“Many of them have jobs, families, but certainly with the support of intervenors they can participate pretty fully in society,” she said.

In addition to its residential facility, the organization runs a training centre on Empress Avenue where staff provides training on technology, communication, orientation and mobility and more.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The charitable organization has grown over the years and is looking for a bigger space in North York so it can have more office space, program space, parking and, most importantly, residential space, Robbins said.

“We have people on our waiting list,” she said. “We’ve been open since ’92 but we’ve only had about 12 vacancies since then.”

Sometimes when McMaster is out with a client, she finds people will ask her questions about how she is communicating with someone rather than directly asking them.

She wants that to change.

“They love being asked these questions, they want to engage with people,” she said. “So instead of just watching and wondering what’s going on, (don’t be) afraid to actually approach and be direct and ask those questions.”