Action on Hearing Loss

Action on Hearing Loss, known until 2011 by its official title, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), is a charitable organization working on behalf of the UK's 9 million people who are deaf or have hearing loss. The head office is in Islington, London. Its President until April 2012 was Lord Ashley of Stoke. The Chief Executive is Paul Breckell. Its Patron is the Duke of York.

History

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People was founded as the National Bureau for Promoting the General Welfare of the Deaf in 1911 by Leo Bonn, a deaf merchant banker, at his home 22 Upper Brook Street, Mayfair, on 9 June 1911. The house is marked by a memorial plaque unveiled by The Duke of Edinburgh, Patron to the RNID, on 9 June 1998.

The Bureau was reorganised as the National Institute for the Deaf in 1924. Alongside its role in influencing public policy in favour of people who are hard of hearing in the UK, it also developed a role as a provider of care to deaf and hard of hearing people with additional needs during the late 1920s and early 1930s.