Media Kit

Deafverse is a free, accessible, choose-your-own-adventure online game created by a deaf team at the National Deaf Center. Designed for deaf youth, the game builds critical self-advocacy, college, and career readiness skills—all in American Sign Language (ASL), English text, and audio voice overs. Not only can this web-based game be played on both desktop and mobile, it also includes interactive world maps and in-game tablet!

Dive into the worlds of Deafverse with:

Legends of the Eldertree (Launching June 12th, 2025!): A college-readiness fantasy adventure set in a magical world where you students uncover elven secrets while navigating dorm life, academics, and campus services.
Duel of the Bots: An adventure where you must build self-advocacy skills to rescue a town from a glitching robot.
Revenge of the Deep: In this world, you must explore careers and get ready for your job to fend off a rampaging Kraken!

Game Objectives

Address gaps in services for deaf youth
Strengthen self-advocacy and self-determination skills
Support college and career readiness
Connect deaf youth with role models

Videos

The Facts

There are an estimated 265,774 deaf youth ages 14–22 living in the United States, according to our deaf youth data report.
Many deaf youth are the only deaf person in their school or community, especially in rural settings, where they have reduced access to career-connected learning that typically happens in social networks. Thus, specialized interventions that target this population are necessary.
A staggering 22.7% of deaf youth ages 16–24 are not going to school or working, which is nearly double the national average of 12.6%.
Deaf Black, Indigenous, or Native American youth, as well as deafdisabled youth, experience the highest rates of disconnection.
Around 50% of deaf youth have additional disabilities, and they benefit from multimodal and multilingual resources that allow them to engage with educational content in accessible and engaging ways.
Only 54% of deaf people were employed in 2021, in comparison to 70% of hearing people in the United States.
Deaf youth who play Deafverse report increased confidence in their ability to make decisions and advocate for themselves.
18,109 accounts have been created since Deafverse’s launch in September 2019.
Players have earned 30,190 badges since the launch in September 2019.
Educators have created 568 virtual classrooms and 1417 accounts for their students since the launch of Deafverse Classroom in November 2023.
From NDC’s Data Report on Deaf College Students:
- An estimated 5% of deaf people are enrolled in postsecondary education and training, compared to 9.9% of hearing people.
- 22% of deaf people have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher, which is 15.7% lower than the attainment rates of their hearing peers.
- Black (15.6%), Latine (15.6%), and Multiracial (21.6%) deaf people have lower bachelor’s degree attainment rates than their white (23.8%) and Asian (40.5%) deaf peers.
- 1.4% of all college students are deaf. The majority of deaf college students are pursuing bachelor’s degrees (42.1%) or associate degrees (45.8%).

Frequently Asked Questions

Have questions? We have answers. Check out our written FAQ, or watch the ASL version.

The Team

The game was developed by a deaf team at NDC. Meet the team!

Tagline:

College is your next quest—let’s make it legendary!

About Legends of the Eldertree

Deafverse: Legends of the Eldertree is a free, web-based, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure educational online game designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing teenagers, educators, and parents. Set in a fantasy world, players discover that elves have disappeared without a trace, leaving behind ruins and a massive, magical tree. Discover important clues to the elves’ mystery as a new student at Eldertree College. Along the way, you’ll go to classes, make friends, and pick up important college readiness skills!

After completing Legends of the Eldertree, players will be able to: