About Us

guywithearHLA Lane County Oregon (HLA-LCO), a chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) provides information, education, support and advocacy for people with hearing loss, their families, and friends. At or between our quarterly meetings you can get information, referrals, encouragement, and support that will help you move along the path towards living effectively with hearing loss.

HLAA is the nation’s leading membership and advocacy organization for people with hearing loss. It is an international, non-sectarian, educational organization of people with hearing loss, their relatives and friends.

Our Activities: What We Have Accomplished

We, the volunteers in HLA-LCO, have assisted others to remain on the job and to understand the speech of others by sharing information and resources on assistive technology.

We have worked with entertainment and other public venues to offer captioned theater performances in Eugene and advocated for assistive listening systems in a variety of settings and for captions at public events at the University of Oregon and the Hult Center.

Other volunteers from our chapter have worked with local hospitals and medical providers to help them understand hearing loss and to provide needed accommodations such as personal assistive devices in medical offices and hospital departments as well as created a low cost Hospital Kit for use by people with hearing loss during their hospitalization.

In addition, members of our chapter were instrumental in developing a handbook called “The Survivor’s Manual” for people with hearing loss, particularly those who have been newly diagnosed. It has been sent free of charge to people around the country.

And of course, many people who have come to our chapter meetings have learned how to better understand and live well with hearing loss from the use of technology and personal coping skills.

History of the Organization

HLA-LCO functioned as Self Help for Hard of Hearing People of Lane County, Oregon as a chapter of the national organization, Self-Help for Hard of Hearing People. In 2006, after the national organization changed its name to Hearing Loss Association of America, our chapter changed its name to Hearing Loss Association of Lane County Oregon. From inception through the name change to today, we have functioned much as we always have as a volunteer organization committed to providing information, education, advocacy and support for those who are hard of hearing, their families and friends.