Hearing, Speech & Deaf Center

We envision an inclusive, accessible world in which everyone is understood and respected. People with communication differences are fully capable contributing to the community. However, many of them, if not most, are faced with communication barriers that prevent them from developing their potential as children and realizing their potential as adults.

Despite the need for communication-centered support, few service providers make communication support accessible to the people who are most at risk. HSDC fills this gap in the Puget Sound Region. We work to create an inclusive world, where people with hearing and speech differences have full access to an independent and fulfilling life, no matter their communication style or financial resources.

HSDC makes the Greater Puget Sound Area more accessible and inclusive for more than 6,000 people every year through five services areas.

- Free assistance, advocacy, and information for the Deaf and hard of hearing
- Interpreting for the Deaf, DeafBlind, and hard of hearing
- Early education for deaf and hard of hearing children that supports the bilingual acquisition of American Sign Language (ASL) and English
- Audiology and hearing aids
- Speech-language therapy

Each of our services meets a critical need in the Puget Sound community. We engage clients as people to be empowered rather than problems to be solved or profit to be made. The effectiveness of HSDC’s comprehensive services lies in our mission of inclusiveness and accessibility. Rather than insisting on one single solution to all communication barriers, HSDC embraces services and programs that accommodate everybody who might need our help.

At HSDC, we pride ourselves on prioritizing healthy communication. Our services and program are designed to meet the needs of people who are Deaf, hard of hearing, or have speech differences by using best practices from their respective industries. In addition, we endeavor to make our services accessible to all, regardless of financial status.

Our Parent-Infant Program, for example, is staffed by master's-level Deaf Educators and provided free to families. Our Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists are certified practitioners that refuse to accept money from manufacturers to prefer a specific product. Our Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services department is run by and for the Deaf community, providing culturally competent support to the Deaf and hard of hearing community free of cost. We are the only sign language interpreting providers in the area that exclusively use certified interpreters.

HSDC has been selected by Seattle & King County Public Health to forward emergency information to the Deaf and hard of hearing, and we are the emergency sign language interpreting providers for the Seattle Police Department. We have won several awards, including the Governor’s Award for Medium Nonprofit of the Year and Nonprofit of the Year by the Greater Seattle Business Association.

HSDC has been working toward an inclusive, accessible world for over 80 years. We began in 1937 when a group of devoted mothers with deaf children partnered with a social club for hard of hearing women to create the Seattle Chapter for the Hard of Hearing. In the 1960s, we were the first organization in the entire United States to offer programming for the Deaf using sign language. Today, we reach more than 6,000 people annually.