Western Oregon Teaching Research Institute Receives $10.5 Million Grant

The Teaching Research Institute at WOU began operations this month.

Photo by: Tim King

(Monmouth, Oregon) - The Teaching Research Institute, housed at Western Oregon University, received a $10.5 million award from the United States Department of Education to create a national technical assistance and dissemination center for deaf-blind youth.

The award will fund the center for five years, including offices at the Helen Keller National Center in New York, Hilton Perkins in Massachusetts, University of Tennessee and Deaf and Blind Link at WOU.

Youth with disabilities facts:

Two of 1,000 youth with disabilities are deaf-blind, totaling 9,500 across the country.

Only 75 teachers in the United States are trained to work with deaf-blind youth.

Extremes of disability range from impairments in sight and hearing to complete deaf-blindness.

Ninety-five percent of D-B children have other disabilities.