DeafTEC: Technological Education Center for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students

DeafTEC is a National Science Foundation-funded Center of Excellence, one of approximately 40 Centers across the United States. DeafTEC is unique in the fact that its focus is on a particular audience, deaf and hard-of-hearing students, rather than on a techncial discipline. DeafTEC is administered by faculty at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, on of the nine colleges of the Rochester Institute of Technology, and overseen by a National Visiting Committee made up of professionals in academia and industry. Emphasizing career education, Rochester Institute of Technology is a privately endowed, coeducational university with one of the most accessible communities available for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Over 1,300 deaf and hard-of-hearing students attend RIT and study, live, and socialize with more than 16,000 hearing students in what is widely regarded as the largest “mainstreamed” program in the world. Deaf and hard-of-hearing students at RIT can pursue associate degree programs in the college of NTID with courses taught using direct instruction or they can pursue bachelor degree programs in the other seven colleges of RIT using a wide range of educational access services.