The Canadian Hearing Society (CHS) has long recognized a gap in services for part-time, post-secondary school students who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing.  CHS had been meeting with the then Ministry of Colleges and Universities (since renamed to Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities) and submitted a proposal to offer support. The Canadian Hearing Society has long recognized a gap in services for part-time, post-secondary school students who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing.  CHS had been meeting with the then Ministry of Colleges and Universities (since renamed to Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities) and submitted a proposal to offer support.

Approval was given in 1985 and the Educational Support Services (ESS) program was implemented by CHS as part of its Ontario Interpreting Services (OIS) program.

By 1990, policies and guidelines were developed and distributed to Special Needs Coordinators/Consultants across the province whose everyday experiences would be reflective in their feedback for the programs with additions and deletions to the policies.

Initially the program offered sign language interpreters, manual notetakers, computerized notetakers, real-time captionists and assistive listening devices.  Currently, the program offers sign language interpreters, computerized notetakers and listening devices.