About
About Partners in Deaf Education
Our organization was founded in 1986 under the name “NYS Organization of Support Service Personnel for the Hearing-impaired.” The name was changed to “Educational Support Service Personnel for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing” (ESSP) to support the notion that individuals who are Deaf, are not impaired, but rather members of a different cultural and linguistic minority who are every bit as capable as their hearing peers. Since then, Deaf Education has evolved with the support of research, technology, and passion for what we do. ESSP is now known as “Partners in Deaf Education” to better reflect how the members of our organization collaborate as partners in the field of deaf education. Our organization, with the support of our sponsors, works to create continuing education opportunities for our members, as well as to advocate for an improved level of educational experiences for our deaf and hard of hearing students.
Mission Statement
Mission Statement:
The Mission of Partners in Deaf Education (formerly Educational Support Service Personnel) is to support and inspire our members to encourage learning, pursue excellence and use knowledge, skills and attitude to contribute respectfully and confidently to the ever-changing process of educating children and youth who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Partners in Deaf Education is an organization dedicated to the education of the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
Membership Constituencies:
- audiologists
- administrators
- college faculty
- C-Print captionists
- A/V therapists
- deaf and hard of hearing youths
- families of deaf and hard of hearing children
- speech/language professionals
- ASL teachers
- mainstreamed school personnel
- notetakers
- teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing
- cued speech transliterators
- sign language interpreters/transliterators
- signing skill coaches
- psychologists.