The Kentucky Association of the Deaf (KAD) is an affiliate member of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). NAD was founded in 1880 and is the oldest and largest organization of the deaf in the United States with more than 22,000 members. The NAD along with other 50 state associations of the deaf and KAD work to improve the lifestyle and opportunities of the deaf and hard of hearing people.

The Kentucky Association of the Deaf (KAD) was founded in 1891 by a group of alumni of the Kentucky School for the Deaf who were concerned about the deaf being excluded from the decision- and making- processes affecting their own destinies.

The Kentucky Association of the Deaf, Inc. (KAD) is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes, with the right to receive contributions and to distribute them to organizations which qualify as exempt under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue of 1954 or any provisions. The specific purposes of the Corporation is for mutual assistance and encouragement of deaf people and to secure moral, intellectual and social improvement of their educational and vocational opportunities. Also it promotes measures to improve conditions and standing in society at large of deaf persons in Kentucky.

The Kentucky Association of the Deaf, Inc. (KAD) has been working closely with the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (KCDHH), the Kentucky School for the Deaf Alumni Association (KSDAA) and the Kentucky Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (KYRID).

In December of 2005, KAD launched the new KyDeaf.org as a one-stop resource site for the Kentucky Deaf Community. Four years later in December 2009, KAD moved KyDeaf.org to a new web host and redesigned the web site.