About DeafTEC

A picture of students walking down the Quarter-mile at RIT on a sunny day

DeafTEC™: Technical Education Center for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students is a NSF Advanced Technological Education Resource Center (award #1902474). The goal of DeafTEC is to increase the number of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in highly skilled technician jobs in which there continues to be underrepresentation and underutilization of such individuals in the workplace. DeafTEC serves as a national resource for high schools and community colleges that educate deaf and hard-of-hearing students in STEM-related programs and for employers hiring deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. 

DeafTEC is administered by faculty and staff at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, one 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 eight colleges of RIT using a wide range of educational access and support services.