What is ALDA?

ALDA-Maine, is the official Chapter of an established national Association called ALDA (see www.alda.org). ALDA stands for "association for late deafened adults." Adults of ALL ages belong.

ALDA was started in Chicago area about 20 years ago by young adults. They had become seriously "hard of hearing" and did not wish to join the sign language non-speaking culture. They found others who understood their communication needs, gathered together and used any pencil and paper, and even a typewriter, to talk with each other (those were days before widespread use of computers and captioning). They felt enourmous relief to be with others who understood this experience when it was not understood by others (and still remains confusing for many). They were not only "hard of hearing" since hearing aids and other listening systems were not good enough for their needs. They were not Deaf either, with a capital D, because they lived and worked in the hearing world and did not necessarily want to learn sign language.They were "late" deafened, having lost hearing, most of them, after learning to speak, at younger or older ages.

From those early beginnings, ALDA participated in the invention of CART (real time captioning) and the national ALDA now has many Chapters and Groups across the country, and international members too. ALDA-Maine, the first Chapter in Maine, is the only volunteer association of its kind providing information, support, friendship, advocacy, and role models for people with acquired hearing needs. We aim for regular meetings in different parts of Maine, if enough volunteer membership energies are contributed. Or we schedule a meeting whenever any member asks to coordinate it with us. We also collaborate with the Maine Division on Deafness to spread the word and good works of ALDA-Maine. The Maine Center on Deafness in Portland has used ALDA-Maine meetings often to talk about their services also. 

ALDA empowers late deafened adults of all ages. Many ALDA members have hearing loss from early childhood. Also, many people who are born deaf learn to speak (beome oral and prefer to speak instead of using sign language), and ALDA has many members of all ages who were born deaf also. Finally, many hard of hearing people find the ALDA family very comfortable and useful for their hearing concerns. ALDA is truly an inclusive association. ALDA says "whatever works" for our many communication needs.

We use CAPTIONING, LIP-READING, and whatever technologies help hearing remaining, depending on the situation. Some use hearing aids, others use FM listening systems, some learn sign language also, and we aim to educate society about speaking clearly for us. Communication is always a two way street. We want to remain active and contributing citizens in all our communities.