Our Story

Berks County, Pennsylvania was the birth place and is the home of Berks Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services.  BDHHS has grown over the years, and has fully expanded services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals not just in Berks and surrounding counties, we now provide services in New Jersey, Delaware, and Baltimore, Maryland.

Brief History
In 1964, Mrs. Margaret Danowski learned that her six-year old daughter had hearing loss. This knowledge had a tremendous emotional impact upon her and her husband, mixed with self-blame, self-pity, and the realization that this was really happening to their child, and not to someone else’s child. Berks Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services had its start, thanks to Mrs. Danowski and local Audiologist Dr. Grabowski, at a meeting held in March 1967, for parents of (or professionals working with) children with speech and hearing problems.

In May 1968, the organization was incorporated as a Non-Profit Agency, known as The Berks County Association for the Hearing Impaired, Inc., later to be known as Berks Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services. The group’s first project was to open a pre-school for Deaf children. This occurred in September 1968, at the First Presbyterian Church in Reading, PA.