Hearing & Speech Impairments

Centrum Sound Systems
572 La Conner Drive
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
(408) 736-6500

Centrum Sound is committed to providing perfect sound for everyone — solutions for hard of hearing and hearing people alike. They carry a wide range of Assistive Listening Systems (ALS):

Personal listening systems for home, work and on the go.

Commercial listening systems for places of public accommodations.

Conference microphones for group conversations.

Sound reinforcement for optimal speech intelligibility.

Crestwood Communication Aids, Inc.
6625 N. Sidney Place
Milwaukee, WI 53209-3259
(414) 352-5678

Ruth Leff, a Milwaukee speech-language pathologist, founded Crestwood Communication Aids, Inc. in 1977. She was an early pioneer in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Aids (AAC). Ruth has patented nine communication devices to help children and adults express their thoughts and needs. All of Crestwood's products are based on need, starting with what the person can do. There is a wide variety of practical products. Their goal is to help people open the doors of communication so that they can control their own environment and gain independence.

NXi Communications Inc.
4505 S. Wasatch Boulevard, Ste. 120
Eagle Plaza Center
Salt Lake City, UT 84124
(801) 274-6001 (Voice)
(801) 274-6004 (TTY)

NXi Communications, Inc. was established in 1990 as an engineering consulting company by three engineers, one of whom is deaf. Since 1992, when NXi received a grant from the National Institutes on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) to develop and improve TTY technology, NXi has been involved solely in the development and production of advanced technology products for text communications. NXi introduced the world's first high speed TTY compatible modem in 1994 and is continuing to break new ground in telecommunications technology for the deaf.

Semantic Compaction Systems
1000 Killarney Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15234
(412) 885-8541

Semantic Compaction Systems (SCS) is named for a patented language representation technique whose commercial name is MINSPEAK® bramd systems. The technique exploits the inherent polysemy (multi-meaningness) of pictures. The use of a Minspeak® visual language in linguistic sequences reduces the symbol set to a small set of multi-meaning icons which can represent large numbers of different entities in a highly memorable manner. Minspeak® based-communication aids assist tens of thousands of people with significant speech and multiple impairments to communicate. Environmental control systems, computer access systems, games, PDAs, Smart Phones, mobile phones, text messaging, web browsing, and data bases using SEMANTIC COMPACTION™ brand systems are either available or in design.

Prentke Romich Company
1022 Heyl Road
Wooster, OH 44691
(800) 262-1984

Prentke Romich Company (PRC) is the world-wide leader in the development and manufacture of augmentative communication devices, computer access products, and other assistive technology for people with severe speech impairments. They are committed to helping people with disabilities achieve their potential in educational, vocational, and personal pursuits by providing quality language and assistive technology products and services to people with disabilities, their families and professionals — treating each person with the highest respect.

Zygo Industries, Inc.
P.O. Box 1008
Portland, OR 97207-1008
(800) 234 - 6006

ZYGO has set the standard of high-tech, yet easy to use augmentative communication systems for profoundly physically disabled individuals since 1974. They manufacture and distribute augmentative communication systems, computer access and other assistive technologies.