ORGANIZATION

The Center on Access Technology is located in the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), one of the eight colleges of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). NTID provides technical and professional programs for approximately 800 dead and hard-of-hearing students enrolled in associate degree programs. NTID also provides extensive educational access services, including interpreting, real-time captioning, tutoring, and notetaking, to nearly 500 deaf and hard-of-hearing students enrolled in baccalaureate programs in the other seven RIT colleges. Ninety-two percent of NTID graduates secure positions that commensurate with their training immediately upon graduation.

Additionally, over 100 interpreting students and teachers of the deaf and hard-of-hearing students are enrolled in programs at NTID.

Established by an Act of Congress in 1965, NTID is a model provider of technical curricula and access and support services for students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. NTID trains its faculty and staff, as well as the faculty and staff of the other seven colleges of RIT, in how to best work with dead and hard-of-hearing students. The college is experienced in providing practical strategies that produce changes in pedagogy, curriculum and the use of support and access services to increase deaf and hard-of-hearing students' opportunities for success.

Founded in 1829, RIT is the 11th largest private university in the nation and a world-class institute of technology. More than 1,300 deaf and hard-of-hearing students study, live, work and socialize daily with over 15,000 hearing peers.

The RIT campus is the logical location for the Center on Access Technology. Here, the Center's personnel will be in close proximity to more than 1,300 mainstreamed deaf students and over 100 deaf faculty and staff. This places the Center in a unique position to study first-hand the access technology uses, challenges and needs of deaf students, both in and out of the classroom.

PERSONNEL

James J. DeCaro
In addition to his new responsibilities as Director of the Center on Access Technology, Dr. DeCaro is currently Director of PEN-International at NTID/RIT. PEN-International is a multinational collaborative network of colleges and universities serving to improve and expand education and career opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing students around the world. PEN-International is funded by The Nippon Foundation of Japan. Prior to holding this post, Dr. DeCaro served as Dean for NTID for 14 academic years, two of those as Interim Director and CEO. He holds BS and MS degrees in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in instructional technology.

E. William Clymer
Mr. Clymer, an Associate Professor at NTID/RIT, is Associate Director of the Center on Access Technology and also currently serves as the Associate Director of PEN-International. He holds a MBA and a BS and MS in technology. His primary focus is on the application of technology in deaf education. Mr. Clymer has served as the chair of the NTID International Symposium on Technology and Education of the Deaf, and recently organized the NSF - sponsored Summit to Create a Cyber-Community to Advance the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals in STEM, held at NTID June 25-27, 2008.

Peter A. Lalley
Dr. Peter A. Lalley is professor in the NTID Department of Science and Mathematics and director of the science and engineering support team in this department. He currently devotes 25% of his annual plan of work to the activities of the Center on Access Technology. Lalley is an expert on support services for deaf and hard-of-hearing postsecondary students. He has been PI or co-PI on seven grants directly related to supporting deaf and hard-of-hearing students in postsecondary education, including the NSF-Funded Speech to Text Systems: Comparative Analysis of Text Generation and Display Methods. Lalley also teaches in the Biological Sciences department at RIT and in the Master of Science in Secondary Education program at NTID.

Gary Behm
Mr. Behm is a graduate of NTID/RIT with his BS and MS degrees in engineering. He is a loaned executive to NTID from IBM for the 2008-2009 Academic Years and part of the 2009-2010 Academic year. At IBM, Behm is a delivery project manager in the Rapid Application Development Engineering System. Behm has four patent disclosures under review, seven disclosures filed, and three patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. He will be working on a variety of access technologies for deaf and hard-of-hearing people while at NTID, where he currently teaches in the Engineering Studies Program, and devotes 25% of his plan of work to the Center on Access Technology.