DBSC Space Needle logo

National Support Service Provider Pilot Project (NSSPPP)


July 2010 Update

National Support Service Provider Project (NSSPPP) Now Complete!

The Board of the Deaf-Blind Service Center (DBSC) and Angela Theriault, Board President, are proud to announce curriculum for SSPs and Deaf-Blind people has been completed! Now called the SSP/DB Curriculum Project, it has been published under its full title, "Providing and Receiving Support Services: Comprehensive Training for Deaf-Blind Persons and Their Support Service Providers".

  • This flexible and easy to use curriculum is divided into lessons organized into modules.
  • The title of the curriculum recognizes that such training is a two-pronged process including training for deaf-blind persons themselves.
  • The appendices guide readers in using the curriculum and in providing SSP services.
  • The SSP/DB Curriculum, authored by Jelica Nuccio and Theresa B. Smith is available in a variety of formats.
  • It can be downloaded from the DBSC website for free, after registering to receive updates in the future.
  • The companion text to the curriculum is available through Sign Media, Inc.

The Details

This flexible and easy to use curriculum can be adapted for use in a college class, embedded throughout an ITP curriculum, as a stand-alone workshop, or for a more focused training within an agency serving deaf-blind people. It includes definitions of the role of an SSP as distinct from that of interpreter and discussions of ethics as well as suggestions for practicing new skills.

The curriculum recognizes that training is a two-pronged process, including training for deaf-blind people in the appropriate use of SSPs as well as training for SSPs themselves. Without this training deaf-blind people cannot use SSPs to the fullest and therefore not fully realize their independence.

The appendices guide users in offering training  by giving advice on how to choose a site, a discussion of "touch" and items specifically for agencies (e.g. sample contract and policies) and more. It is designed for both deaf-blind people and potential SSPs. It is especially appropriate for deaf-blind persons regardless of whether they are members of the Deaf-Blind Community or isolated in semi-urban or rural areas, and whether they are completely deaf and blind, hard of hearing and blind, or deaf and visually impaired. The curriculum also emphasizes the need to use deaf-blind instructors for all sections as well as instructors who are skilled and experienced SSPs themselves.

The SSP/DB Curriculum is available in a variety of formats: regular and large print, and in Braille grades 1 and 2. They are each and all downloadable for free from the DBSC website in text and visual versions:

As Theriault says, "DBSC believes that the best way to ensure that this curriculum is used again and again in Washington State and throughout the nation, is to provide it without cost to non-profit organizations, interpreter training programs, and individuals who want to use it, so that a greater number of deaf-blind persons can readily achieve independence."

The SSP/DB Curriculum was written by Jelica Nuccio, MPH and Theresa Smith, Ph.D. Both are nationally known experts in training deaf-blind people and Support Service Providers. Nuccio, who recently resigned from DBSC after serving the organization as Executive Director for five years, continues as the director of this project. Smith published the seminal textbook, "Guidelines: Practical Tips for Working and Socializing with Deaf-Blind People." which serves as the reference for the SSP/DB Curriculum and is available from Sign Media, Inc. in Burtonsville, MD.

Finally, to receive updates on the curriculum such as the materials we are currently developing, we ask that you register before downloading.

The DBSC website contains the agency mission: "The mission of the DBSC, located in Seattle, WA, is to assist deaf-blind people in reaching and maintaining their highest possible quality of life and degree of personal autonomy." Take time to browse the agency website and learn more about this seminal not-for-profit agency. The website too is accessible in both text and visual versions, simply click on the one you prefer.

Theriault adds, "On behalf of the Deaf-Blind Community of Seattle, I want to thank Jelica Nuccio, Theresa Smith, and Robert Roth for this wonderful work. They have immeasurably improved the lives of deaf-blind people everywhere with the publication of this curriculum." Theriault also wishes to acknowledge Senator Patty Murray for her invaluable assistance in obtaining funding for the SSP/DB Curriculum as well as for the project's Phase 2, which will develop visual materials to accompany the SSP/DB Curriculum.

For more information, contact Jelica Nuccio at jbnuccio@comcast.net


June 2010 Update

From April 4 to April 10, 2010, Jelica Nuccio and Theresa Smith traveled to the East, visiting four cities (Boston, MA, Rochester, NY, Silver Spring, MD, and Columbus, OH) to spread the awareness about our new curriculum, "Providing and Receiving Support Services: Comprehensive Training for Deaf-Blind Persons and Their Support Service Providers." This was a unique publishing objective because we targeted and met deaf-blind leaders/activists rather than just e-mailing and informing them. Our mission was to explain what is inside of our curriculum (for example, why training takes more than three days at three different levels; why we encourage deaf-blind persons to take the training; and encouraging both sighted and deaf-blind instructors rather than having a sighted person only be the instructor) and educate these leaders on how to use our curriculum (for example, who will use it, or who "owns" it, who will train the trainers). The average length of each meeting was three hours plus one-on-one sessions to expand open dialogue on the collaboration between agencies in the community (for example, between the deaf agency, blind agency, ITP, and/or DB organization).

In our first meeting we met Elaine Ducharme from Deaf-Blind Community Access Network (DBCAN). With her assistance, we recruited a few key deaf-blind people in the greater Boston area, such as Ona Stewart, Lori Rodriguez, and Diane Childers from the Deaf-Blind Contact Center. They were very excited to learn more about the purpose of our curriculum tactilely (in deaf-blind to deaf-blind exchanges). We all will continue to work on future plans with them.

Next, we met Patty Starr and Teresa Battisti from the Rochester deaf-blind community and we held the meeting at the Center of Disability Rights. Shana Gibbs was our ally who invited and supported three other deaf-blind people including RIT deaf-blind student Heather Grizzle. The Center now has a position opening for a SSP coordinator. We will stay in touch with them for further support and use of our curriculum. Also present were Susie Morgan-Morrow from the Deaf-Blind Children Project of New York, Molly Rimer, the New York and New Jersey regional coordinator for Helen Keller National Center, and Chad Ludwig as an ally to work with the team.

Our third stop was in Silver Spring, MD where we met Jaime Pope and Elizabeth Spiers from the American Association for the Deaf-Blind, and Blaise Delahoussaye, president of Metro Washington Association of Deaf-Blind. We discussed using our curriculum as well as the possibility that there may be a potential sponsor to establish SSP services in DC area. Ellen Farnham from Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind and Steven Collins of Gallaudet University have been working very hard to seek funds along with Blaise, Jaime and Elizabeth, using our curriculum as part of their strategic planning.

On our last stop, we met the various key deaf-blind people from the state of Ohio in Columbus, with the help of Jeff Bohrman in coordinating the meeting. There were four more participants including Jill Gauss from Michigan, Lynn Jansen from Cincinnati and two allies, Phyllis Adams and Nancy Basil, who collaborated with Jeff in their colleges to recruit ASL students. They felt that training deaf-blind people is essential and will be able to use our curriculum as a tool.

We wanted to thank all of the people who were involved in this last chapter of Phase One, tactile publishing, for the wonderful, educational and productive meetings that helped to spread the awareness and education to other states in the need to standardize the definition of Support Service Provider's roles.

More coming soon for sharing the same tactile publishing with the Seattle community.


April 2010 Update

Phase 1 is nearing completion. Jelica Nuccio and Theresa Smith recently completed a trip to four cities: Boston, MA, Rochester, NY, Silver Spring, MD, and Columbus, OH, to "tactilely publish" the NSSPPP curriculum to various groups and individuals.

The curriculum, "Providing and Receiving Support Services: Comprehensive Training for Deaf-Blind Persons and their Support Service Providers" will be available soon on the DBSC website, where anyone will be able to download the regular and large print versions, as well as Braille 1 and 2, ready to emboss. By providing links to these electronic versions, DBSC hopes that anyone will feel free to use this curriculum, to read online or to print in the version of their choice. In addition, sample regular print, large print, Braille 1 and Braille 2 copies are being readied for specific government and organizational groups, such as the Department of Education (that funded Phase I), the American Association of the Deaf-Blind, and Washington state's Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services.

Phase II has just been funded by the Department of Education, to develop and provide materials to accompany the Phase I curriculum. These materials will provide trainers of the curriculum, to both SSPs and deaf-blind persons, with multi-media PowerPoint presentations that will include photographs and video clips embedded within the slides. The goal is to have at least one PowerPoint presentation for each lesson in the curriculum. During the development of these materials, we will use curriculum advisors and focus groups to provide us with feedback for improvements. We hope to have Phase II completed by July 2011.

If you have any questions about the NSSPPP curriculum projects, please contact Jelica Nuccio atJBNuccio@comcast.net


January 2010 Update

In our previous December 2009 Pro-Tactile E-News, we stated that we would provide the latest update on Phase One while we announced that we may receive federal funding for the Phase Two project.

As many of you know, the DBSC received $335,043 to develop and publish a curriculum for training SSPs and to train deaf-blind persons on using SSPs effectively. Curriculum development started in July 2008, and we have received extensions of this grant through June 2010. The curriculum is called "Providing and Receiving Support Services: Comprehensive Training for Deaf-Blind Persons and their Support Service Providers." As of December 2009, the curriculum, approximately 300 pages long, has been completed and is now being laid out for publication in regular print, large print, and Braille 1 and 2. All versions of the curriculum should be completed by the end of January 2010, and will be available electronically, at no cost, via links on the DBSC website. All in the community will be notified when the links are ready.

As we neared completion of the curriculum, it became clear to us that a fifth avenue of providing the curriculum was necessary. We are calling this fifth avenue a "tactile publication" where leaders in the deaf-blind community will come to three or four meetings in select locations in the United States to receive information about the curriculum and establishing an SSP program. More information about the training, to be provided March, 2010, will be announced in January. If you would like to receive information about the tactile publication, please contact Rob Roth at rob88roth@rocketmail.com.


December 2009 Update

As many of you know, the Deaf-Blind Service Center received $335,043 to develop and publish a curriculum for training Support Service Providers (SSP) and to train deaf-blind persons on using SSPs effectively. Curriculum development started in July 2008, and we have received extensions of this grant through June 2010. The curriculum is called "Providing and Receiving Support Services: Comprehensive Training for Deaf-Blind Persons and their Support Service Providers." As of December 2009, the curriculum, approximately 300 pages long, has been completed and is now being laid out for publication in regular print, large print, and Braille 1 and 2. All versions of the curriculum should be completed by the end of January 2010, and will be available electronically, at no cost, via links on the DBSC website. All in the community will be notified when the links are ready.

As we neared completion of the curriculum, it became clear to us that a fifth avenue of providing the curriculum was necessary. We are calling this fifth avenue a "tactile publication" where leaders in the deaf-blind community will come to three or four meetings in select locations in the United States to receive information about the curriculum and establishing an SSP program. More information about the training, to be provided March, 2010, will be announced in January. If you would like to receive information about the tactile publication, please contact Rob Roth at rob88roth@rocketmail.com.

Just last week, we found out more good news for the NSSPPP project. Through the assistance of Senator Patty Murray, DBSC received $200,000 to develop Phase II of the NSSPPP project, a DVD and other instructional materials for training deaf-blind persons and their support service providers. We expect to start on this new phase in April, 2010, for completion before June, 2011. We at DBSC are very excited about these new dollars, and sincerely thank Senator Murray and her staff for all of their work.


December 2008 Update from Jelica Nuccio, Director

Hello Fellow Community Members!

This is the latest update about the National SSP Pilot Project (NSSPPP). In our last update of May 2008, we informed you that we received $335,043, which we must use within one year. During this time frame, ending June 30, 2009, we are reviewing tapes of your outings, interviewing people and developing a curriculum for training SSPs and deaf-blind people who want to learn how to use SSPs more effectively. The following are the steps we are taking during this time frame:

  • Research on best practices nationally
  • Interviewing persons, individually and within focus groups, who are currently SSPs or wish to become an SSP
  • Interviewing deaf-blind persons, individually and within focus groups, who have experience using or wish to use SSPs
  • Gather information on availability and use of SSPs in both urban and rural regions of Washington State focusing on Seattle, Spokane, Yakima and Bellingham
  • Develop a draft curriculum for training SSPs and deaf-blind persons

We will recruit new SSPs in Spokane and Yakima and train people there in collaboration with deaf centers in those two cities. We will also pilot test a more advanced curriculum here in Seattle with experienced SSPs. With these results, we will evaluate the curriculum and improve it by making revisions.

In the future, we hope to get more money to continue the NSSPPP program, including development of training materials, including DVDs, and publishing the curriculum for national use.

In July, we hired Theresa Smith, Ph.D. as the curriculum developer and Rob Roth as the project coordinator. Jackie Matthews joined us in October as the SSP and interpreter coordinator for our work on the curriculum. Also included on this project are the experience and knowledge of DBSC staff members.

Many of you know Theresa Smith as the former director of the Interpreter Training Program at Seattle Central Community College and most recently as Director of the American Sign Language Interpreting School of Seattle (ASLIS). She is the author of Guidelines for Working and Socializing with Deaf-Blind People published by Sign Media in Maryland. She has over thirty years of experience in writing curricula, teaching, and supervising educational programs.

Rob Roth may be a familiar face to some of you as the executive director of CSCDHH from 1993 to 1998. He left Seattle in 1998 to take on the reins as executive director for DCARA in the San FranciscoBay area, and moved back to Seattle three years ago. In addition to working on this project, Rob is currently working at the University of Washington, coordinating a summer academy in computing for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind high school and college students. Rob has a M.A. degree in Art Education from California State University, Northridge.

Jackie Matthews has worked as an interpreter coordinator at the University of Washington and at the Seattle Lighthouse for the Blind, where she also coordinated SSPs. In addition to coordinating interpreters and SSPs for the NSSPPP program, she is a freelance interpreter in the community.

In December, I traveled to Yakima and Spokane to meet deaf-blind people that live in rural or small city areas where there are no deaf-blind communities. What are their needs? Debra Kahn (Yakima) and Char Parsley (Spokane) are working with DBSC, helping us to get a "pulse" on the potential persons interested in becoming SSPs. Early in 2009, Theresa and I hope to meet with these people again, including local deaf-blind persons and potential SSPs in preparation for training.

Meanwhile, we will need assistance from experienced SSPs who want to share their experiences and thoughts about SSPs to make training materials for SSPs better. If you want to be videotaped (you will be paid for your time) or have ideas you would like to share, please write an email to me at jnuccio@seattledbsc.org.

On DBSC's website, we will keep you informed about dates and times as we schedule these events. Other news about the project will also be posted here. We look forward to working with you and others in Yakima and Spokane in our long-term goal to establish SSP services throughout Washington State and the nation.

Warm Regards,
Jelica Nuccio and the NSSPPP Team


May 2008 Update

Hello Fellow Community Members!

We want to update you about the National SSP Pilot Project. Last time you heard from us (December 2007), we told you that Senator Murray earmarked $335,000 for this project, which we must use in one year. The project we envision is a big one and will take longer than one year, so we have split it up into several phases. We hope to get more money next year. Right now we are in Phase One. In this phase we will write a curriculum for training SSPs, and offer some training to deaf-blind people who want to learn more about how to use SSPs. A curriculum is like a lesson plan but bigger.

This curriculum will be a model for us here in Washington State, but later, after the curriculum is finished and tested, we hope it will be used by other states to train SSPs too. That is our goal: better SSP services for DB people.

Maybe you are wondering, "Why don't I have more SSP hours, if DBSC expects to receive $335,000? " The reason is that this money is limited. We cannot use it to add more hours. The purpose is to improve SSP services, to make them better, but not to add more hours. Of course, we are still continuing to look for more money from the state and other sources to add more SSP hours.

This grant is our chance to prove to the Federal Government, and other potential funders that SSP programs are good quality, important to DB people and worth funding. We need "SSP" to be recognized as an official category of employment, and therefore something that can be funded by the government. This project will help funders to understand what SSPs are, why their work is important and the skills and training that are needed .

Writing a formal curriculum is like writing a recipe to teach new SSPs. This will bring us one step closer to nation-wide recognition of "SSP" as a regular job. This will help people in other states apply for money to pay for SSP services.

This is a huge project, and we need help from all deaf-bind community members who want to share their experiences, and thoughts about SSPs to make them better. If you have ideas about this, please write an email, call, or come see Terra Edwards. Do you know Terra? She lived in Seattle a few years ago and worked as an SSP with some DB people. Also, last summer she asked some DB people about their experiences with SSPs. You can meet her in person too. You can contact her at terraedwards@gmail.com to set up an appointment.

Our planning team right now includes the entire DBSC staff plus Theresa Smith, Rob Roth, and Terra Edwards. We will also have focus groups and meetings that you can participate in next Fall. We will keep you informed about dates and times as we schedule these events on DBSC's website. Other news about the project will also be posted there.

First, we want to videotape examples of SSPs working to study the skills they need this month. From May 5- May 31, Terra will be videotaping deaf-blind people working with SSPs. We will analyze these videos to find out how deaf-blind people and SSPs work together successfully. We will then document this or write about it in our curriculum. Anyone who is interested in participating will be paid for their time. Please contact Terra soon if you want to join the videotaping part of the project or if you have questions about it.

This is an exciting time for the Seattle deaf-blind community, when we can support deaf-blind people across the nation in establishing SSP services and deaf-blind communities.

Warm Regards,
Jelica Nuccio and the NSSPPP Team


Background Information

Many people in the United States who are deaf-blind experience both vision and hearing losses. Deaf-blind people experience communication barriers, limited opportunities for employment and education. Transportation and information about their environment is difficult to access.

A service that can benefit deaf-blind individuals is a network of skilled, trained people called Support Service Providers (SSPs). They are specifically trained and hired to work with individuals who have both hearing and vision losses.

Support Service Providers do not fill the roles of personal care attendants, sign language interpreters, or caregivers. They do not make decisions for deaf-blind persons. SSPs provide visual and environmental information, sighted guide services and information accessibility to empower deaf-blind individuals so they can make informed decisions.

With the assistance of SSPs, deaf-blind people can get and keep a job, do job-related tasks such as reading job announcements, memos and traveling for business, participate in the political process by voting, run errands, read mail, make purchases, and do tasks anyone can do. Deaf-Blind people who have SSP services available, are no longer isolated by barriers to information and businesses, and they can participate more fully in society.

The Deaf-Blind Service Center, located in Seattle, WA, has a model SSP program. Deaf-blind people living in Seattle have received the services of trained SSPs for the past 20 years. Other states want to duplicate this model, but they need training and money to set up SSP services. Research results show that only Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Utah provide statewide SSP services to their deaf-blind citizens. Only nine states, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Washington, and Wisconsin have some SSP services in local cities or counties.

The need for national SSP services became an important goal after the 2003 AADB Convention in San Diego, California. During this AADB Convention, members informed the AADB Board about their concerns and need for SSP services nationally. The Seattle Deaf-Blind Service Center staff and Board members also approached the AADB Board about the idea of becoming partners to work on establishing national SSP services.

In the spring of 2004, Seattle DBSC staff and Board members met with AADB staff and together educated members of Congress about the need for national SSP services. Advice from members of Congress was to first select 2 or 3 sites with a need for SSP services in the country and then set up pilot studies in those sites. If the pilot study results show positive changes for deaf-blind people who received SSP services in those sites, then Congress might be able to provide money to help other states set up SSP services.

After meeting with members of Congress, the Deaf-Blind Service Center in Washington State began setting up the National SSP Pilot Project, with the American Association of the Deaf-Blind in Silver Spring, MD and the Helen Keller National Center in Sands Point, NY, as supporting partners. The partners agreed that the Seattle Deaf-Blind Service Center would be the lead agency and be responsible for the administration of the money for the pilot project.

The partners agreed to select three areas for the pilot sites. The first site selected was Washington, for expanding SSP services outside of Seattle to include all of Washington State. Austin, Texas and Maryland/Virginia Washington DC Metro areas were selected next.

The criteria for selecting these two additional sites were:

  1. Both sites have deaf-blind leaders who have had formal leadership training during the past 2 years
  2. Both sites have a need for SSP services and a large deaf-blind community
  3. Both sites have deaf-blind leaders who are familiar with Seattle DBSC's SSP services and have received training from the Seattle DBSC staff
  4. Both sites have deaf-blind community members ready to work on setting up SSP services and have already started volunteering their time for this work
  5. Both sites have Deaf-Blind leaders immediately ready to volunteer many hours for the project.

After selecting the pilot sites and deaf-blind leaders from Austin, Texas and the MD/VA DC Metro area, the National SSP Pilot Project Committee was formed. Members of this committee are:

  • Kris Cue, Deaf-Blind community leader from Austin, TX
  • Randy Pope, Washington D.C. metropolitan area Deaf-Blind leader
  • Dorothy Walt, Region X Helen Keller National Center Office and AADB Board member
  • Jamie Pope, AADB Executive Director
  • Elizabeth Spiers, AADB Director of Program/Services
  • Caryn Tenin, President of DBSC Board of Directors
  • Jackie Engler-Morris, DBSC Program Director

The National SSP Pilot Project committee held its first meeting in Seattle, during the summer of 2004. In November 2004, the committee met again in Austin, Texas, after a day of training on the political process with many AADB Board members.

The committee is now working on getting federal funds to support the 3 pilot projects in Washington State, Texas and the MD/VA/DC Metro area. Future sites in other states will be selected after the completion of the pilot project's successful outcome report. The goal is to establish a national network of professionally trained, skilled SSPs.

For more information about the project or if you want to know how you can help, please contact:

Jelica Nuccio
1620 18th Avenue, Suite 200
Seattle, WA 98122
E-mail: JBNuccio@comcast.net