Program Structure
(Narrator) In order for transition to be successful, transition planning and services must be embedded within a structured program. Annual deaf-blind transition institutes, offered by the National Center on Deaf-Blindness, state deaf-blind projects, and other agencies provide this type of structure. The institutes are intensive learning experiences where students develop self-advocacy and self-determination skills. They also provide opportunities for students to meet and share their stories with peers, and hear from role models who know what it's like to have been a young adult with deaf-blindness. Family members and service providers are also involved. 
(Jana) I think transition is so important, and the reason why I do is because we set standards for what life is supposed to be, like, after high-school, and preparation for that should be as early as possible.
(Elizabeth) It's a different kind of communication need for deaf-blind than just deaf than hearing, I mean, deaf has needs, have needs for communication so just, you know, interpreting, things like that.
But deaf-blind is a little bit of a--within that umbrella it's a separate need, and for people that are trained in it it's very important for them to know how to interact with their consumer and what their needs are for visual and auditory access and it's different for every single person: I think we have twenty kids here and every single one of them has a slightly different need. So, you're in a room and there is a presenter and there's fifteen different things happening for communication and it's just amazing to see, but to think about when they get out there into the community what's happening for them, you know, what kind of supports do they have. So it's really important for us to bridge that gap between, "Hey, here I am at school and I have all these supports and I have these people reminding me, you know, 'this is what you need to do' or 'hey, do you need this?' or, you know 'are you understanding everything?' "And then they graduate and they leave the school and that umbrella of safety and support is kind of, it's lessened. So this is like the transition institute is that bridge between, "I'm in high-school and I have people telling me and helping me and reminding me" to, "I'm an adult, I'm on my own and I have no idea how to find these supports". The transition institute, that is exactly where these kids need to be because they are getting all of that, "how do I communicate what I need". 
(Kelly) As teachers, as providers, as parents, there can be a tendency to help too much and so to be in an environment where every person who is working here has the goal of promoting independence, every person who is working here has the goal of promoting self-advocacy, and so it's constant training, 24/7 on how to do that. It's really nice to see.
(Emily) One thing that I always say: these institutes are so transformative. We can do technical assistance, one-on-one, talking with the schools, talking with the young people, talking with the parents, and you get very slow change or progress. Here, it's magical and transformative, the amount of change that you see in two or three days, it's just phenomenal.
(Jana) So the transitioning for deaf-blind students, the institute, this weekend, the importance of that, really is for both sides of the coin. For the families to be able to start letting go, and to realize that their child is highly capable, and to see the other students also.
Then for the students to branch out and take those risks of independence that they are going to be able to do eventually too.
It's about growing up. 
(Emily) When we take a look at offering these special retreats, or special institutes as we call them now, a lot of it is about bringing together the young people that maybe for the first time they've even heard the term "deaf-blind." In their own schools, in their own states, they might be the only student who has a vision and hearing loss. So here they can begin to form a sense of community, an identity about what it means to be deaf-blind and not only begin to accept it, but to embrace it. So once they understand a little bit more about their challenges, they can now become advocates for those who maybe don't have as much a voice for themselves. So they begin to learn what are some of the different issues, and that we are all deaf-blind, it doesn't matter whether you have more vision loss or more hearing loss or if you have physical challenges, or even if you have communication challenges.
Then we can begin to speak for all of us, to be proud, to be the best that we can be. One of the things we hear from the young people is that one of the big takeaways is being around other young people who get it.
They don't have to explain, they don't have to be sorry for it, they don't have to apologize. So I said: if this is this important, how do we continue to make sure that this happens? So one of the things that we did was to develop an online toolkit, so that it is something that can live and breathe, electronically, for anyone who wants to access, "How do we go forward?" Another is we've created webinars that describe how to use the toolkit. In the beginning we started out with just Georgia and Florida, taking turns offering the institute. And the other states came and they joined in, and it's one thing to kind of watch and help, and it's a completely different animal to have to host it yourself. So what we learned is that we need to expand to other states to become host states. So in-- so far we've had Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi, and now Kentucky. So as each state does the institute, it grows, it gets better and you have more people that are able to do it.
So it's sort of like as you see it you grow it, and that's really important.