About Sense

Who we are

Sense is a national charity that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are deafblind or have sensory impairments. We have been supporting people who have sensory impairments to enjoy more independent lives for the last 60 years.

Sense was started by a group of families who had deafblind children after being seriously affected by rubella during pregnancy. Today, a growing number of children are born prematurely with a range of medical conditions that often include sight and hearing impairments. There are also older people who develop sight and hearing loss at later life.

We have a thriving community of active families at the heart of Sense; that is a big part of who we are and what we do.

You can see how we have developed over the past 60 years on our history page.

Our patron is HRH Princess Royal.

What we do

Deafblindness refers to a combination of sight and hearing impairment which causes difficulties in a range of areas including communication, access to information and mobility.

At Sense we offer high-quality, flexible services across the UK, using skilled staff and a dedicated network of volunteers. We work with a wide range of people who are deafblind or have sensory impairments, as well as those who have a single-sensory impairment with additional needs. We have skills in complex communication, orientation and challenging behaviour.

We take pride in offering services built around the wishes of each person we support and enabling them to be as independent as possible. We have a range of direct services from respite and flexible packages of support through to registered care and supported living. We work with children, young people, adults and older people with a progressive sight and hearing loss, offering a range of housing, educational and leisure opportunities. Sense supports people of all ages to achieve remarkable things.

We also offer support to all deafblind people in both the congenital and acquired deafblind communities, not just those who receive direct support and services from us.

For further information read our Corporate brochure or see our How we help section.