“Hearing Loss, Deafness, and Innovation: The Contribution of Science, Institutions, and the Third Sector” was held on March 3, 2026, in Rome’s Sala della Regina (Queen’s Hall) of the Chamber of Deputies. The Symposium was promoted to mark the fifth National Awareness Day on Ear Diseases and Consequent Hearing Disorders, coinciding with World Hearing Day (WHO).
The Symposium was organized by the Italian Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery (SIOeChCF), the Italian Society of Audiology and Phoniatrics (SIAF) and the National Association of the Deaf (ANS). Representatives of the Institutions, the Scientific Community, and patient Associations all agreed on the need for early diagnosis of hearing loss and deafness, early rehabilitation, and lifelong care. They emphasized that access to care and rehabilitation varies greatly from place to place in Italy.
Institutional representatives discussed the project to establish a National Observatory on Deafness, with the aim of initiating legislative processes leading to the adoption of legal provisions that effectively protect hearing health. But can the Legislator alone achieve this goal? The unanimous answer was “Negative!” Only through stable and permanent collaboration between the Legislator, the Scientific Community and Associations representing people with hearing loss and deafness can legal provisions emerge that effectively protect hearing health, since only those who “live” with hearing loss and deafness can adequately represent their needs and possible solutions.
Lawyer Laura Orsatti, President of USHER Italia A.P.S., spoke about the Association and its goals, as well as the enormous challenges, including serious psychological ones, faced by people with Usher Syndrome: the difficulties caused by low vision and blindness, as well as those caused by hearing loss and deafness. In closing, the President warmly invited everyone present at the Symposium to collaborate with USHER Italia A.P.S. in promoting awareness of Usher Syndrome, thus reaching out to the public and ensuring diagnoses and a significant boost for scientific research.
