On August 16, 1911, a group of eighty-two Deaf citizens, mostly alumni of the South Carolina School for the Deaf, gathered on the school campus in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Their main topic of discussion was the isolation of Deaf people and how to minimize it. In order to begin working on a solution to the problem and other problems Deaf citizens in South Carolina faced, this group created the South Carolina Association of the Deaf.
SCAD, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, was legally established and incorporated on June 6, 1973.
In 1983, SCAD received state appropriations funds and established an office on the SC School for the Deaf campus with a full time staff. Different activities were planned and SCAD slowly began to grow and became a statewide non-profit organization that exists today.
Currently, the SCAD office is located at 437 Center Street in historic West Columbia. It is walking distance to the Gervais Street Bridge that crosses over Congaree River into downtown Columbia.
