Heuser Hearing & Language Academy, formerly the Louisville Deaf Oral School, was established in 1948 through a joint sponsorship between the Woman’s Club of Louisville and the Kiwanis Club of Louisville. It was a humble beginning with three children in the basement room of the Woman’s Club. At that time, Miss Barbara Daugherty, Miss Alice Clark and Mrs. Ruth Browning were the only teachers and they volunteered to instruct students on Saturday mornings. By the close of the first school year, eleven children had enrolled.
The Louisville Deaf Oral School was the first school of its kind in the state of Kentucky; today, the academy remains one of a few schools that strongly supports an auditory approach to learning.
Heuser Hearing & Language Academy has received national acclaim for our model preschool/kindergarten program and diagnostic center serving deaf and hard of hearing children. Since the 1970s, HHLA has partnered with Jefferson County Public Schools and the surrounding school systems to provide services for eligible preschool- and kindergarten-aged children at no cost to the families. If the Heuser Hearing & Language Academy is not the child’s placement option, families are provided a sliding tuition scale option that takes into account other financial obligations. We are happy to say that no child with hearing loss has ever been denied services due to an inability to pay.
Call Heuser Hearing Institute at (502) 636-2084 for more information about Heuser Hearing & Language Academy.