page_title: Rochester Institute of Technology
section_title: Deaf and hard-of-hearing students
hierarchical_section_title: Rochester Institute of Technology / Student life / Deaf and hard-of-hearing students
caption_attribution_description: The Tojo Memorial Garden, created in 1975 on the RIT campus. The Garden was created in memory of RIT photography student Yasuji Tojo. The granite lantern featured in the photograph was donated by Tojo's parents. The Garden is intended as a "living memorial to eternal youth." The area where the Garden is located was named the "Eastman Kodak Quad" in 2003. The Frank E. Gannett building is in the background on the left; the George Eastman building is on the right.
context_page_description: Rochester Institute of Technology is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees and online masters as well.
  The university was founded in 1829 and is the tenth largest private university in the country in terms of full-time students. It is internationally known for its science, computer, engineering, and art programs, as well as for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a leading deaf-education institution that provides educational opportunities to more than 1000 deaf and hard-of-hearing students. RIT is known for its Co-op program that gives students professional and industrial experience. It has the fourth oldest and one of the largest Co-op programs in the world.
  RIT student population is approximately 19,000 students, about 16,000 undergraduate and 3000 graduate. Demographically, students attend from all 50 states in the United States and from more than 100 countries around the world.
context_section_description: One of RIT's unique features is the large presence of deaf and hard-of-hearing students, who make up 8.8% of the student body. The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, one of RIT's nine colleges, provides interpreting and captioning services to students for classes and events. Many courses' lectures at RIT are interpreted into American Sign Language or captioned in real time for the benefit of hard-of-hearing and deaf students. There are several deaf and hard-of-hearing professors and lecturers, too; an interpreter can vocalize their lectures for hearing students. This significant portion of the RIT population provides another dynamic to the school's diversity, and it has contributed to Rochester's high number of deaf residents per-capita. In 2006, Lizzie Sorkin made RIT history when she became the first deaf RIT Student Government President. In 2010, Greg Pollock became the second deaf RIT Student Government President. In 2018, Robert "Bobby" Moakley became the third deaf RIT Student Government President.
caption: The Tojo Memorial Garden in the Eastman Kodak Quad
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