Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard Of Hearing

Hearing loss affects 12,000 children born in the United States each year --33 babies a day-- making it the most common birth defect. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, an estimated 28 million people in the United States have some degree of hearing loss.
The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) was founded by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell in 1890 and is the only national organization dedicated to supporting children and adults who are deaf or hard of hearing who use spoken language and hearing technology to communicate in mainstream society. For 118 years, the association has remained focused on Dr. Bell's belief that all individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, when given the opportunity, can learn to communicate orally using their residual hearing and hearing technology. Never before has this goal been as attainable as it is right now for children with hearing loss and their families.

AG Bell's membership includes parents of children with hearing loss, individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing as well as professionals in the fields of medicine, audiology, speech-language pathology, research and education. AG Bell is governed by a 21-member volunteer board of directors and has a paid staff of 11 at the national office in Washington, DC. AG Bell has an extensive volunteer network that includes 30 state chapters and 41 international affiliate groups. Chapters are incorporated entities with a primary goal of increasing awareness of hearing loss and the importance of early diagnosis and intervention at the state level. Chapter leaders volunteer their time to educate health-care and education professionals, parents, and the general public that children with hearing loss can learn to listen and talk.

Key to this initiative is a community-based approach to connecting parents and other stakeholders with AG Bell chapters to foster the personal connections that are so critical to raising awareness. This outreach effort includes: (a) developing parent and professional education resources, (b) linking families of children with hearing loss to a network of parents, professionals and adults with hearing loss, (c) driving advocacy efforts at national and grassroots levels, (d) broadly disseminating the latest hearing-loss research, (e) engaging media through public service announcements and articles, (f) offering continuing education programs and training (conferences and workshops) to hearing-health and education professionals, and (g) developing standards of excellence and certifying hearing-health and education professionals through the AG Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language, an independently governed U.S. 501(c)(6) subsidiary corporation of the AG Bell U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity.

AG Bell is a lifelong resource, support network and advocate for listening, learning, talking and living independently with hearing loss. Through publications, advocacy, education, scholarships and financial aid, AG Bell helps to ensure that every child and adult with hearing loss has the opportunity to listen, talk and thrive in mainstream society. With over a century of service, AG Bell supports its mission: Advocating Independence through Listening and Talking!