Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind as it looks today
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind circa 1906
Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind students at play in 1927
Jonathan Kennedy and his large family in front of the school soon after it opened. Jonathan is possibly the older gentleman seated front row, second from left.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind (CSDB) is a K-12 residential school, located on Knob Hill, one mile east of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, near the famous laboratory of Nikola Tesla. The school was founded in 1874 as The Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes by Jonathan R. Kennedy, who had previously been steward at the Kansas State School For the Deaf. The school began in a rented house in downtown Colorado Springs with seven students, three of whom were Kennedy's own children. One of his children, Emma, later married another student, Frank H. Chaney, and they became the parents of the actor Lon Chaney. Colorado Springs' founder William Jackson Palmer was the land-grantor of several institutions in Colorado Springs, including the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind.
CSDB were the 2004 National Champions in the Deaf Academic Bowl. CSDB serves students and their families who are deaf, blind, or both. CSDB also coordinates the Colorado Home Intervention Program (CHIP) that serves deaf and hard of hearing students from birth to three years old within their home. CSDB provides outreach services to support students, families, and school districts throughout Colorado.