Girl Born Without Ears Learned to Communicate Thanks to Special Program That Lost Its Funding Over Trump’s Anti-DEI Push

A 3-year-old girl who is deaf and has limited vision learned to communicate — and even formed a close friendship with another child with similar challenges — through a Wisconsin program designed to support deafblind children. But after federal cuts tied to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) priorities, the state-run program lost key funding, and her parents are speaking out.

“It seems like it should be a group of kids that everyone wants to help,” Casey Garner, 34, told The New York Times. “Taking away help from deafblind kids? I don’t understand.”

After years of fertility struggles, Garner and his wife, Leah Garner, adopted a baby girl they met at the hospital in 2022, according to the newspaper. They soon learned their daughter, Annie, was born without ears and also faced significant vision challenges. She also had weak muscle tone and a developmental disability.

In a statement, Garner said that raising a child who is both Deaf and visually impaired presents challenges most families never encounter — and that relying on separate services for Deaf and blind children didn’t provide the practical tools they needed to support Annie.

Relief came when they discovered the Wisconsin Deafblind Technical Assistance Project (WDBTAP), which offers resources for parents and service providers to better meet the needs of children with combined hearing and vision loss.

According to the National Center on Deafblindness, deafblindness means “an individual has combined hearing and vision loss, thus limiting access to both auditory and visual information” — and the organization emphasizes that early access to specialized educational support is critical.

Through the program, the Garners learned American Sign Language (ASL) with help from a deaf mentor and received additional training on how to communicate effectively with their daughter. The program also connected them with other families facing similar circumstances.

During her time with WDBTAP, Annie became best friends with another deafblind girl her age, and their families regularly arrange meetups so the girls can play, The New York Times reported.

Learning the program’s funding had been cut came as a “shock,” Garner said in a statement.

The change took effect in September, when the Trump administration ended a nearly $1 million, five-year grant for WDBTAP, citing goals in the grant application connected to DEI, according to The New York Times. The newspaper also reported that a separate $10.5 million grant supporting efforts to secure special education teachers in Wisconsin was cut as well.

“These are kids who depend on specialized support just to access their guaranteed right to a free and appropriate public education,” State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction said in a statement at the time. “Losing these dollars at this point in the year will be devastating for the kids who need these supports the most.”

Attempts by the state to restore the funding were rejected, The New York Times reported.

The move is part of a broader rollback of DEI-related initiatives that accelerated after Trump began a second term.

In a statement, Savannah Newhouse, the press secretary of the Education Department, said the administration is reviewing federal grants to ensure they align with its policy priorities and that funding is being redirected rather than eliminated. Newhouse said the department “re-awarded over 500 IDEA Part D grants and non-continued fewer than 35 grants” that it viewed as misaligned with its goals.

“Many of these use overt race preferences or perpetuate divisive concepts and stereotypes, which no student should be exposed to,” Newhouse continued. “The non-continued grant funds are not being cut; they are being re-invested immediately into high quality programs that better serve special needs students.”

Families like the Garners are already feeling the impact.

The Wisconsin Deafblind Project supports 170 children from birth through age 21. While the program secured an additional year of funding through the National Center on Deafblindness, that support is expected to run out by next fall, The New York Times reported.

Garner said he is grateful the program has a temporary lifeline, but added that he and other parents remain deeply concerned that “our most vulnerable students and kids are at risk.”

The family is also watching federal legislation such as the Cogswell-Macy Act, which would “improve services and education opportunities for students who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and DeafBlind,” according to the National Association of the Deaf.

Looking ahead, the Garners want Annie to have access to WDBTAP-trained interpreters known as “interveners,” who support deafblind students in school so they can communicate more easily and participate more fully.

For the family, the value of specialized support is difficult to put into words. As The New York Times reported, Annie recently used a tablet — a skill she learned with help from program staff — to write herself a message: “I am a beautiful person who is the best.”