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Sid Miller loves rock climbing, sailing and designing 3D-printed objects. This summer, he began studying graphic design at Milwaukee Area Technical College.
He’s also deafblind, and savors the deafblind culture and community in Wisconsin.
Since age 4, he has relied on a state-run program, funded by a federal grant, to develop his abilities and connect with that community.
But in late August, the U.S. Department of Education canceled that program, called the Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Project (WDBTAP), for the same reason so many other programs nationwide have been shuttered: It had goals involving diversity — persons of color, women, veterans and people with disabilities.
It’s the only program of its kind in the state that works with deafblind youth. Miller can’t imagine life without it.
“It feels like you have no place in the world because you’re not like other people,” said Miller, who lives with his mother in Cedar Grove. “It’s so easy to be bumped aside, left sunken down in a corner. That’s where I would be if I didn’t have WDBTAP and all the great people I’ve met in my life.”
The federal education department says the grant services will be reinvested into other special education programs, but no one has explained how or in what specific programs.
Advocates don’t trust that will happen, or how it could even work.
The Deafblind Program has been administered by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction since 2009, but it’s been a staple of the deafblind community since the 1960s when it was housed at the now-shuttered Silver Lake College in Manitowoc.
By the numbers, the Deafblind Program is small. It currently serves 170 deafblind young people in Wisconsin. For the final three years of a five-year grant cycle, from 2023 and 2028, the project was supposed to be awarded about $551,000. That’s a little more than $183,000 per year.
Still, families and advocates describe the program as a lifeline.
Deafblind kids need specific skills early in life — learning how to use American Sign Language and assistive technology, for example — to prevent language deprivation. The Deafblind Program supports them from birth through K-12 school, and the transition to adulthood. It provides coaching for families, assistive technology and other tools.
Though all 50 states have federally funded programs for deafblind youth, Wisconsin is one of just eight states where those programs were recently cut.
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is appealing the federal government’s decision. Among other things, DPI argues it included the diversity-related goals because the grant’s own requirements were established in the Biden era.
“This would be horrendous for deaf-blind children in the state of Wisconsin,” said Adrian Klenz, executive director of the state’s Center for Deaf-Blind Persons, Inc., which serves adults.
Parents say Deafblind Program is critical for learning, connections
Leah and Casey Garner spoke to the Journal Sentinel over speakerphone as their 3-year-old daughter babbled in the background. They attribute much of her growing ability to communicate — using “voicing,” assistive technology and sign language – to the Deafblind Program.
“Basically, taking out this program is taking out a leg of the three-legged stool for supporting kids,” Casey Garner said.
The Deafblind Program connected the family with an adult mentor who is deaf, and could teach them to communicate using American Sign Language. It’s a resource that other organizations wouldn’t have provided until she turned 3, the Garners said.
“Trying to be able to figure out, how do we tell our daughter, ‘Hey, we love you. Hey, are you hungry? Do you need a diaper change?’” Casey Garner said. “Having a deaf mentor made an enormous impact.”
They also rely on the Deafblind Program’s library of loanable tools, like communication buttons, which can be expensive. They get a new book, in both braille and written English, each month.
The Garners live in the Reedsburg area ― a relatively small community where most other kids interact with the world differently than their daughter. They say it’s been critical to attend the deafblind events for families with deafblind kids.
“I just see it affecting so many families negatively, not being able to have this,” Leah Garner said.
The Deafblind program follows kids from birth to age 21. Most of the participants, 85%, have four or more disabilities.
Cedar Grove student Sid Miller, 19, graduated with honors from Wisconsin Virtual Academy and earned a prestigious scholarship to attend Milwaukee Area Technical College in 2025. His mother, Jennifer Robers, 49, says the support of Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Project made it possible for Miller to succeed.
Miller, the 19-year-old, began relying on the deafblind program when he was 4 years old.
He remembers sitting on his first-grade classroom carpet at his public school, feeling alone and discarded. But when a professional from the Deafblind Program came to observe his class, they understood right away he wasn’t learning. He needed accommodations.
He’s been on a successful path ever since. For the last three years, he’s been a member of the National Honor Society; more recently, he earned a prestigious college scholarship for academic excellence.
Now, he’s a mentor to younger deafblind kids and their families.
“The program allows you to achieve the unachievable,” Miller said. “They will push you to do what you want to become and provide the support to do so. It’s really that simple.”
His mother, Jennifer Robers, hoped health care providers and educators would be able to help her navigate deafblindness.
But by and large, those professionals didn’t understand how to help, Robers said. Parents, just their deafblind children, need guidance.
“It’s like going into a new field and there’s a bunch of acronyms, but nobody gives you a glossary of what they stand for,” Robers said. “That’s what entering this whole world is like as you try to get accessibility for different things.”
Can Deafblind Program services be picked up elsewhere?
Savannah Newhouse, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, pushed back on the idea that funds were being cut. Instead, she said they are being “re-invested immediately into high-quality programs that better serve special needs students.”
However, Newhouse did not provide more details when asked.
Advocates worry federal officials don’t understand services for deafblind people are specialized and can’t easily be provided by other programs.
For example, Wisconsin has a Council of the Blind & Visually Impaired. The council refers people to the Deafblind Program for services it can’t provide, said executive director Denise Jess.
“We can rock the blindness skills,” said Jess, who herself is blind. “But when you factor in the other sensory loss, we’re not the experts in that area.”
While Wisconsin does have a Center for Deaf-Blind Persons, Inc., its focus is on adults.
The federal government notified the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on Aug. 27 that, after a review, it found the program’s activities conflict with federal policy “prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.”
Specifically at issue are Wisconsin’s goals related to diversity in hiring, including that 40% of applicants would befrom underrepresented and historically marginalized groups. The review also took issue with goals that 7% of grant expenditures were to businesses owned by women and/or minorities, and 4% to businesses owned by people with disabilities or veterans.
Newhouse, the federal spokesperson, said Wisconsin’s grant was among 35 recently terminated programs as part of efforts to ensure federal funds would no longer “go out the door on autopilot” on the taxpayer’s dime.
“Many of these (grants) use overt race preferences or perpetuate divisive concepts and stereotypes, which no student should be exposed to,” Newhouse said.
Wisconsin DPI’s appeal is multi-layered
Sid Miller, 19, has a passion for graphic design and 3D printing. He’s able to work with a modified monitor to visualize his designs and bring them to life. He’s pursing graphic design at Milwaukee Area Technical College and wants to continue crafting objects designed especially for his deafblind peers.
Miller has been an intern with the Deafblind Program for the last year. Along with mentoring deafblind youth, he designs tools to help them practice braille.
For the past several months, he’s has been making gold metals, 3D-printed in braille and written English. He planned to present them at the Deafblind Program’s annual Olympics celebration event.
But he was laid off because of the funding cut. His last day is Sept. 30.
“The Olympics probably won’t happen now either,” Miller said, turning the medal in his hand.
Sid Miller, 19, designed gold medals to be awarded to all deafblind participants of the 2026 Winter Olympics hosted by the Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Project. After the U.S. Department of Education abruptly canceled federal funding for the grant program in late August 2025 and with it, Miller’s internship with the program, the winter Olympics aren’t likely to happen now, Miller says.
On Sept. 11, the Department of Public Instruction sent a letter back to the federal government arguing funding should be reinstated. Along with saying the loss would be “devastating,” it says the Trump administration’s actions are unlawful.
According to the department’s letter, the diversity-related goals cited by the Trump administration are from materials that haven’t been used since 2023. Further, it included those goals in its grant application to fit Biden administration requirements.
The department provided a copy of the Biden-era grant application requirements to the Journal Sentinel. It requests grant applicants, like DPI, “ensure equal access and treatment for members of groups that have traditionally been underrepresented based on race, color, national origin, gender, age, or disability.”
When the Journal Sentinel asked the Trump administration about these contradicting priorities, Newhouse did not respond.
Sid Miller, 19, uses his 3D printer to design braille learning tools for deafblind youth. The braille “pop-its” can be depressed and raised to introduce words in braille.
For families, the need to speak out was immediate.
Leah Garner said she was distraught when she learned the funding was cut. Casey Garner said he sprang into action, and started looking for ways to help. It’s why they are sharing the family’s story, and contacting Wisconsin lawmakers to see if the state could find another way to provide services.
For Miller, he said he wants people in the federal government to put themselves in his shoes.
“I wish they would experience how this is going to impact us before they make decisions,” Miller said. “I feel like they didn’t really think ahead on how this would hurt us. Like they just did it to prove something that has nothing to do with us.”
Cleo Krejci covers K-12 education and workforce development as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. For more information about Report for America, visit jsonline.com/rfa.
Natalie Eilbert covers mental health issues for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can reach her at neilbert@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump cut vital Wisconsin’s deafblind youth program, blaming DEI goals
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