About Open Ridge
Open Ridge Benefit Co. exists so that Deaf and hard-of-hearing people have the language, the credentials, and the self-determination to define their own futures. We build the training, the tools, and the services that make that possible — and we build them Deaf-led, in ASL, from inside the community we serve.
We work in three areas: workforce development, ASL-first educational technology, and benefits counseling. See what we offer →
Why a benefit corporation
Open Ridge is a Maryland Public Benefit Corporation. That is a deliberate choice. A benefit corporation is required to pursue a chartered public mission — not profit alone — and to report publicly on how it is meeting that mission. For us, that means our commitment to the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community is written into the structure of the company, not just its marketing.
Who we are
Open Ridge was founded by Rupert Dubler, a retired Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI) with decades in the interpreting field, including training Deaf interpreters. The company is built on a simple conviction: the people who design programs for the Deaf community should be part of it.
Being Deaf-led shapes every decision — how we design curriculum, how we run training, how we build technology, and how we communicate. Accessibility is not something we add at the end; it is where we start.