In 1968, 45 deaf skiers from around the country gathered in Park City, Utah, for the first national meeting. At this meeting, several people, including Jerome Moers and Simon J. Carmel, urged that a national deaf ski organization be created. The idea found favor, and the yet unnamed group elected Joe Cohen as its first president and began work on creating a constitution and by-laws. Carmel was originally chosen as Eastern Director, and later served as president as well.

At the group's second meeting, in 1970, the name United States Deaf Skiers Association was settled on, and the group agreed to have biennial meetings. The constitution and by-laws were approved and the board of directors was formalized. The USDSA also affiliated itself with the American Athletic Association for the Deaf (AAAD). This was so it could be recognized by the Comité International des Sports des Sourds (CISS), the international deaf sports governing body. CISS recognition allowed USDSA to participate in the World Winter Games for the Deaf (now the Winter Deaflympics) by selecting and training the United States ski team. The USDSA also held its first officially sanctioned races at the 1970 meeting.

Cross-country skiers were added to the group in 1972. The USDSA successfully bid to host the 1975 Winter World Games for the Deaf at Lake Placid, New York, in 1975. In 1998, the group admitted snowboarders and changed its name to the United States Deaf Skiers and Snowboarders Association (USDSSA). It continues to be active in sanctioning and promoting deaf winter sports.

Simon J. Carmel, born deaf in 1938, attended Gallaudet University, receiving a BA in physics from Gallaudet and a MA and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at American University. At Gallaudet, Dr. Carmel was a noted athlete in soccer and swimming, representing the United States in swimming at the World Games for the Deaf in 1961. In 1962, he became interested in skiing and trained as a member of the Washington Ski Patrol, as well as becoming a qualified ski instructor. In 1967, he singlehandedly organized, trained, and coached the first American team to participate in the World Winter Games for the Deaf. In 1971 he was team director, and in later years he continued to be involved in fundraising, organizing, and training for the World Winter Games. Besides skiing, he has many other interests, including stage magic, deaf folklore and humor, sign language, and Jewish and Russian deaf history, and led an oral history program to document the stories of deaf Holocaust survivors. He worked as a crystallographer at the National Bureau of Standards and has also been a professor on the NTID faculty.