Action on Hearing Loss

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People was founded as the National Bureau for Promoting the General Welfare of the Deaf in 1911 by Leo Bonn, a deaf merchant banker, at his home 22 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, on 9 June 1911. The house is marked by a memorial plaque unveiled by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Patron to the RNID, on 9 June 1998.[1][2]

The Bureau was reorganised as the National Institute for the Deaf in 1924. Alongside its role in influencing public policy in favour of people who are hard of hearing in the UK, it also developed a role as a provider of care to deaf and hard of hearing people with additional needs during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

During the 1940s, with the introduction of the National Health Service (NHS) to the UK, it successfully campaigned for the provision of free hearing aids through the new welfare state system. The 1950s and 1960s saw its increasing influence marked by Royal recognition: in 1958, Prince Philip became the Patron of the Institute; and in 1961 Elizabeth II approved the addition of the "Royal" prefix, creating the Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID).

The Institute expanded into medical and technological research during the 1960s and 1970s, being a key player in the development of NHS provided behind-the-ear hearing aids. During the 1980s it developed the Telephone Exchange for the Deaf, a pioneering relay service allowing telephone users and deaf "textphone" users to communicate with each other using a third-party operator to relay voice and text communication. This became the service known as Typetalk in 1991, funded by BT but operated on their behalf by RNID until 7 December 2009 when the RNID stepped down from the service. It is now solely owned, run and managed by BT alone. In March 2009 the name of the Typetalk service was changed to Text Relay.[3]

In 1992 the Institute changed its name to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People but kept the initials RNID.

June 2011 saw Centenary Celebrations to celebrate 100 years of the RNID and a new change of name—Action on Hearing Loss. "Action on Hearing Loss" was chosen because it better describes the breadth of help and support they provide for people with all types of hearing loss—from people who are profoundly deaf, to people who are losing their hearing.[4] They trade under the new name 'Action on Hearing Loss', but like a lot of other charities who have changed their names, they will be keeping the legal name, Royal National Institute for Deaf People.

AHL announced in 2020 that it was selling its 23 care homes and its supported living, community and domiciliary care services which it had been providing since 1929. The charity’s 560 clients were told their homes and services were to be sold and the 600 staff would be transferred to a new owner. This was despite the organisation’s chief executive saying in 2018 he had no plans to carry out the same kind of mass sale of services that he oversaw in his previous position as chief executive of the disability charity Scope.[5]

AHL admitted that it had not consulted its staff before taking the decision to sell its homes and services. The charity said the move was necessary to reduce its debts and focus on campaigning, advice and information.

Its 2018 annual accounts show the charity had an income of £40.1m but spent £42.7m. This is the fifth time in six years that the charity's expenditure has exceeded its income. AHL's auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers said that "material uncertainty" over fundraising income and other conditions cast doubt on the charity’s ability to "continue as a going concern".[6]

Action on Hearing Loss' activities include:

• campaigning and lobbying, with the help of members, to change laws and government policies
• providing information and raising awareness of deafness, hearing loss and tinnitus
• giving training courses and consultancy on deafness and disability
• offering communication services including sign language interpreters
• making lasting change in education for deaf children and young people
• supporting deaf people into work with the organisations employment programmes
• providing care services for deaf and hard of hearing people with additional needs
• social, medical and technical research.

Action on Hearing Loss has achieved a high profile for its work in lobbying and working with the UK government on modernisation of the UK's audiology services. This has resulted in the introduction of superior digital hearing aids free of charge via the NHS.

Action on Hearing Loss has also emerged as a major player in technology research and development, in particular through its work in the area of product development. The Action on Hearing Loss Product Development team won an Innovation Award for their work on a new genre of telephone - the ScreenPhone.

• Action on Hearing Loss website
• Free online hearing check
• pd4me website for visual language professionals