Begun in 1974 as a non-profit educational foundation, the Southeast Asian Institute for the Deaf (SAID) is recognized as a forerunner in Total Communication. The dream and dedication of a group of parents, educators of the deaf from Gallaudet University, deaf individuals and friends that started the program, has expanded and today challenges the deaf community to an even more far-reaching dream.
SAID stands as an expression of the benevolence of MIRIAM COLLEGE to allocate space for a school that has struggled for 33 years to find a “place in the sun”. In June 2007, SAID was integrated into the Miriam College system. It now operates as one of the basic academic units of Miriam College. MC-SAID is considered the first school for the deaf in the Southeast Asia to adopt the Total Communication philosophy in educating deaf children. The ultimate goal of SAID (now known as MC-SAID) is the mainstreaming of its graduates into the regular college and eventually in the working community. The school aims to develop the maximum potential of the deaf child for a full and happy life. Miriam College has helped realize this objective by offering a Mainstreamed College Program for deaf high school graduates. The program was conceived as a stepping stone in concretizing the plans for providing higher educational opportunities for the deaf. The motivating philosophy underlying this program of integration is the simple premise that children who are deaf have the right to dignity, individuality, uniqueness and to an opportunity to become fully participating citizens within their cultures, to the degree permitted by their abilities and capacities.
