National Technical Institute for the Deaf

2025-09-24T14:04:59Z

8.9.95.128:

{{Short description|Technological college in New York, U.S.}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2025}}
{{Infobox university
|name = National Technical Institute for the Deaf
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|image_name = National Technical Institute for the Deaf.JPG
|image_size = 300px
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|established = 1965
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|type = [[State school|Private-Public partnership]]
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|chancellor =
|president = [[Caroline M. Solomon]]
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|city = [[Henrietta, New York]]
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|website = [https://www.rit.edu/ntid/ rit.edu/ntid]
|logo = RIT 2018 logo National Technical Institute for the Deaf hor k.svg
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}}

The '''National Technical Institute for the Deaf''' ('''NTID''') is the first and largest technological [[college]] in the world for students who are [[deaf]] or [[hard of hearing]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=NTID at a Glance |url=http://www.ntid.rit.edu/about |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131115104027/http://www.ntid.rit.edu/about |archive-date=15 November 2013 |access-date=16 August 2013 |website=Rochester Institute of Technology}}</ref> As one of nine colleges within the [[Rochester Institute of Technology]] (RIT) in [[Rochester, New York]], NTID provides academic programs, access, [[American Sign Language|ASL]] in-class interpreters and support services—including on-site audiological, speech-language, and [[cochlear implant]] support. As of fall [[Academic term|quarter]] 2012, NTID encompasses just under 10% of RIT's enrollment, 1259 students. Roughly 775 deaf and hard of hearing students are cross-registered into another RIT college's program with support from NTID.

In addition to a master's degree in deaf education, NTID also offers a [[bachelor's degree]] program in ASL-English Interpretation.

==History==

The institute was established in 1965 by the passage of {{USPL|89|36}}.<ref>{{Citation | title = National Technical Institute for the Deaf | periodical = [[United States Code]] | location = [[Washington, D.C.]] | publisher = [[Office of the Law Revision Counsel]] | volume = 20A | series = Chapter | url = http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/20C20A.txt | access-date = 2008-12-08 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130115042758/http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/20C20a.txt | archive-date = 2013-01-15 }}</ref> The law also established a National Advisory Group to find a suitable site for the school. The Advisory Group considered proposals from [[Illinois State University]], [[Pennsylvania State University]], the [[University of Southern California]], the [[State University of New York]], the [[University of Colorado at Boulder]] and others before deciding on RIT as its home in 1966.<ref>{{Citation | last = Gordon | first = Dane R. | date = 2007 | title = Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City, 1829–2006 | edition = 1 | location = [[Henrietta, New York]] | publisher = RIT Press | page = 235 | isbn = 978-1-933360-24-9 | oclc = 80360669}}</ref> Three factors helped RIT secure the responsibility for the new institute:
*RIT had just moved to a new campus, so the institute would not find itself in second-hand quarters.
*Rochester businessmen had enlightened views about disability in the workplace and were eager to share those views with the Advisory Group.
*RIT had a trustee, Edmund Lyon, who had served as president of the [[Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing]] and as trustee of the [[Rochester School for the Deaf]].

The institute was originally conceived as tuition-free, providing technical training as well as academic and communication skills training to 600 deaf students annually.<ref>{{Citation | title=ROCHESTER TO GET U.S. DEAF COLLEGE | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=November 15, 1966 | page=22}}</ref>

NTID admitted its first students in 1968.<ref>{{Citation | last = Marschark | first = Marc | last2 = Lang | first2 = Harry G. | year = 2002 | title = Educating Deaf Students: From Research to Practice | location = [[New York, New York]] | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]] | page = 35 | isbn = 978-0-19-512139-1 | oclc = 45668968}}</ref> Its establishment initially caused a great deal of friction on campus between hearing students and deaf students and RIT faculty and NTID faculty, the points of contention centering on the construction of new buildings for NTID, whether or not NTID faculty salaries were more generous than those of their peers, and communication differences between [[American Sign Language]] and [[American English]].<ref>{{Citation | last = Gordon | first = Dane R. | date = 2007 | title = Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City, 1829–2006 | edition = 1 | location = [[Henrietta, New York]] | publisher = RIT Press | page = 295 | isbn = 978-1-933360-24-9 | oclc = 80360669}}</ref>

In the early 1980s, NTID's enrollment spiked as deaf students from the "[[rubella]] bulge" of the mid-1960s entered their college years.<ref>{{Citation | last = Gordon | first = Dane R. | date = 2007 | title = Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City, 1829–2006 | edition = 1 | location = [[Henrietta, New York]] | publisher = RIT Press | page = 297 | isbn = 978-1-933360-24-9 | oclc = 80360669}}</ref> Enrollment has been trending higher again in recent years; NTID's 2008 enrollment was its highest ever at 1,450, easily surpassing the previous record of 1,358 set in 1984.<ref>{{Citation | title = NTID Sets Enrollment Record | periodical = [[NTID News]] | location = [[Rochester, N.Y.]] | publisher = National Technical Institute for the Deaf | url = http://www.ntid.rit.edu/media/full_text.php?article_id=771 | access-date = 2009-04-11}}</ref>

In 1993, NTID established its Center for Arts and Sciences to help boost the numbers of undecided (or underprepared) students who stay on to pursue a baccalaureate degree.<ref>{{Citation | last = Gordon | first = Dane R. | date = 2007 | title = Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City, 1829–2006 | edition = 1 | location = [[Henrietta, New York]] | publisher = RIT Press | page = 475 | isbn = 978-1-933360-24-9 | oclc = 80360669}}</ref> By 2005, this program had raised the proportion of NTID students in bachelor's degree programs to 41% (from 12% twenty years earlier).<ref>{{Citation | last = Gordon | first = Dane R. | date = 2007 | title = Rochester Institute of Technology: Industrial Development and Educational Innovation in an American City, 1829–2006 | edition = 1 | location = [[Henrietta, New York]] | publisher = RIT Press | page = 513 | isbn = 978-1-933360-24-9 | oclc = 80360669}}</ref>

The history of NTID and the art, [[Deaf culture|culture]], technology, and language of the Deaf community are preserved in the RIT/NTID Deaf Studies Archive, which is housed on campus in the RIT Archive Collections in Wallace Library.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://library.rit.edu/depts/archives/ritntid-deaf-studies-archive|title=RIT/NTID Deaf Studies Archive {{!}} RIT Archive Collections|website=library.rit.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-06-26}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''Institute leaders'''
|-
! Name
! Title
! Tenure
|-
| D. Robert Frisina
| Director Senior Vice President
| 1967–1968 1977–1979
|-
| William E. Castle
| Director Vice President
| 1968–1982 1979–1994
|-
| Peter Pere
| Dean
| 1982–1984
|-
| James J. DeCaro
| Dean
Interim president
| 1984–1998
1995-1996
|-
| [[Robert R. Davila]]
| Vice President
| 1996–2006
|-
| [[T. Alan Hurwitz]]
| Dean President
| 1998 – December 31, 2009 2006 – December 31, 2009
|-
| James J. DeCaro
| Interim president
| January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010
|-
| Gerard J. Buckley
| President
| January 1, 2011 – July 18, 2025
|-
| [[Caroline M. Solomon]]
| President
| July 19, 2025 – present
|}

==Notable alumni==

* [[Clayton Valli]]
* [[Daniel Durant]]

==See also==
*[[PEN-International]] (Postsecondary Education Network International)
*[[Project Insight]]
*[[Gallaudet University]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{cite book |last1=McCarthy |first1=James K. |title=A shining beacon : fifty years of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf |date=2018 |publisher=RIT Press |location=Rochester, New York |isbn=9781939125491 |oclc=1019854198 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{official website}}

{{RIT}}
{{Deaf rights movement}}
{{Schools for the deaf in the United States}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:Education in Rochester, New York]]
[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1965]]
[[Category:Rochester Institute of Technology colleges]]
[[Category:Deaf universities and colleges in the United States]]
[[Category:Schools for the deaf in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Technological universities in the United States]]
[[Category:Private universities and colleges in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Universities and colleges in Monroe County, New York]]
[[Category:1965 establishments in New York (state)]]

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National Technical Institute for the Deaf