History
The Center was founded in 1925 as the Cincinnati League
for the Hard of Hearing by Mrs. Anna Pattison, wife of
the Ohio Governor. Like similar leagues throughout the
country, volunteers ran programs which were primarily
social and recreational in nature. As persons with hearing
loss were quite marginalized in society at that time,
the Center filled a real community need. As service men
returned home from WW II with noise induced hearing losses,
there was a proliferation in the development of academic
and rehabilitative/service programs and the field of Audiology
was born.
|
|
| In
Cincinnati the impetus for initiating professional service
delivery for those with speech and hearing problems came
from Dr. Jean Rothenberg. Following the birth of her children,
Jean suffered a hearing loss and made it her life's work
to help people obtain the communication care that she
was unable to find in Cincinnati. |
| By
traveling to other cities, Jean studied with professionals
at the Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center and apprenticed
with Mary Whitehurst in New York City. Upon her return
to Cincinnati, Jean increased her collaborative efforts
with the League in order to open a professional Center
in her own city. In 1950, the Cincinnati Speech and Hearing
Center was open for business. At that time, the Center
opened with several initiatives including speech and hearing
rehabilitation, support of professionals in speech and
hearing, enlightenment of the public to promote hearing
conservation, and whatever else would be necessary to
advance the general purposes of all these. In 1999 to
reflect the Center's true service constituency, the name
was changed, one more time to the Hearing Speech and Deaf
Center of Greater Cincinnati. |
|
| Celebrating
80 years of service in 2005, our basic reason for being
remains the same. While we have grown (seeing over 8,000
individuals in 2004) and expanded programs and services,
we are here to empower individuals to overcome obstacles
to communication. |
|
