Our first course, CS100 – Introduction to Cued American English, was developed using hundreds of video clips, photos, and text files from a CD-ROM based course in beginning Cued Speech, “I Cue U Cue”, developed by IDRT (Institute for Disabilities Research and Training, Inc.) with funding from the federal government.  Using the I Cue U Cue files, licensed to NCSA by IDRT, and then in turn, licensed to AEHI by the NCSA, allowed us to develop our first course more quickly and economically.

Part of our mission is that Cue College will continue to offer an expanding array of courses, products, services, and resources for teaching Cued Speech and best practices in the use of Cued Speech to families and professionals.  Cue College was developed to be a collaborative platform from which our colleagues in the national and international Cued Speech community could share, via the internet, expertise and resources they have developed over the years — so that all who could benefit from Cued Speech would finally have access.

Alternatives in Education for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Individuals (AEHI) provides funding and oversight of Cue College development.  Since AEHI is a not-for-profit organization, its funding is in part provided by donations and grants.  Grants from the Million Dollar Roundtable Foundation, the Ronald and Mary Ann Lachman Family Foundation, and several other anonymous donors were instrumental in creation of “Cue College”.  Cue College funding will continue to depend for some time on donations from current and new benefactors — and we encourage those who desire and can afford to do so to contribute via “Donate” buttons found on the Home Page and in the Cue Store.  Someday soon, we hope that all funding will come from sales of Cue College products and services!

AGBMS, the Alexander Graham Bell Montessori School, located in Wheeling, IL, a northwest suburb of Chicago, is the centerpiece “bricks-and-mortar” program of AEHI.  AGBMS (not in any way associated with the A. G. Bell Association for the Deaf) is a nationally recognized model school for mainstreaming deaf and hard-of-hearing students, ages 6 weeks through 15 years, alongside their hearing peers.  AGBMS is an AMS-accredited Montessori program where all staff use Cued Speech in order to provide full access to spoken language to all students.  See www.agbms.org for more information on the school and how we use Cued Speech all day, everyday.

AEHI also provides Cued Speech workshops, individualized parent training and support, educational consulting, professional development events, informational booths and presentations at professional conferences, and more.  But the impact of AEHI’s outreach efforts has always been severely limited due to the small size of our organization combined with the high cost of reaching people in the multitude of geographic areas that have few or no resources.

The National Cued Speech Association has provided a sub-license to AEHI to use video clips and other content from the “I Cue U Cue” CD-ROM program to aid in the development of Cue College’s first course, CS100 – Introduction to Cued American English.  Visit www.cuedspeech.org to become an NCSA member, learn more about the organization, and make connections with other members in your community.

We invite our colleagues from the national and international Cued Speech community to contact us in order to become Cue College contributors and collaborators. We have invested in a platform for Cued Speech collaboration that can be shared by all of us.

We are seeking qualified individuals to:

• create and offer courses on our online learning management system, Canvas by Instructure
• develop and/or sell CS related products in our Cue Store
• contribute content to our Cue Library

Please contact us for more information on being a Cue College collaborator.  Generous and fair profit-sharing contracts will be offered for those who sell their courses and products on Cue College.  AEHI is a not-for-profit organization and will retain proceeds only to the extent necessary to continue developing and operating Cue College.