Center has been lending an ear to deaf people for 85 years

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Kevin J. Miyazaki

A child gets used to a hearing aid with the help of a therapist at the Center for Communication, Hearing and Deafness in West Allis.

Kevin J. Miyazaki

A child gets used to a hearing aid with the help of a therapist at the Center for Communication, Hearing and Deafness in West Allis.

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West Allis - The Center for Communication, Hearing & Deafness in West Allis, the only place of its kind in Wisconsin, is celebrating its 85th year.

The center, 10243 W. National Ave., annually serves about 6,000 children and adults with hearing and communication disabilities. It offers personalized services, technology and education. It also offers early intervention for children to help keep them from falling behind in school, parent education, hearing rehabilitation and independent living skills training for adults. It has full audiology services and sign language interpreting.

Through its tele therapy program the center helps children via the Internet all over the country. It also has a hearing product store with an online catalog that people nationwide access.

The center started in the downtown area as a program that offered people with hearing difficulties the chance to participate in social gatherings, said Kerry Malak, communications director. As hearing technology improved, the focus turned to the more clinical side of things, she said.

The center moved from the downtown Milwaukee area to Brookfield and then to West Allis, in 2005, she said.

- Jane Ford-Stewart