The National Technical Institute for the Deaf is located on the campus of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and is a private college.
One of the nine colleges of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Of the more than 14,000 undergraduate students from around the world on campus, 1,100 are deaf or have hearing loss. The institute is the first and largest of its kind for deaf students, who can choose from more than 90 majors across RIT’s nine colleges. Students are enrolled.
Instructors communicate through ASL, spoken language, finger spelling, printed and visual aids, and online resources. FM systems are also available, along with tutoring, note-taking, real-time captioning, and interpretation staff. RIT’s campus features dozens of intelligent classrooms with state-of-the-art computers and multimedia technology, as well as engineering laboratories and digital printing presses.
Campus life includes more than 200 clubs and organizations, as well as many men’s and women’s varsity, intramural, and club sports. Ninety-five percent of deaf and hard of hearing graduates are employed. More than 8,000 alumni are employed by industry leaders such as BNY Mellon, Boeing aircraft, Inc. the Central Intelligence Agency, Google, Microsoft, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Walt Disney Company.
History: The concept of NTID began with a proposal in 1964 at a seminar entitled “Improving Professional Opportunities for the Deaf” held at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 1965, Senator Lister Hill (Alabama) introduced the NTID bill, which passed the House and Senate unanimously. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare invited colleges and universities from across the country to apply for NTID sponsorship. RIT competed with eight other colleges to become part of the NTID, which it did in 1968.