AIDB

Overview of Regional Centers

AIDB has been serving children and adults with hearing and vision loss statewide for 150 years through Talladega-based campuses. But in the 1980s, we began addressing the needs of thousands of individuals in their homes and communities across Alabama.

Perhaps you are a parent whose newborn infant or a toddler has been diagnosed with a hearing or vision loss. Or you are deaf and need an interpreter for a medical appointment or a job interview. Or maybe you are among the growing numbers of “graying” seniors, learning to cope with age-related hearing or vision loss. An AIDB Regional Center near you can help!

Each Regional Center – located in Birmingham, Dothan, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Talladega, Tuscaloosa and Tuscumbia - offers a unique mixture of services, because each Center has been developed according to the needs of the community it serves. What they all share, however, is a deep commitment to creating a better way of life for all our clients, of all ages, all with many different levels of ability and many different goals.

The AIDB Regional Center network began in 1980 with early intervention programs serving infants, toddlers and their families. In 1985, a $1 million grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation enabled us to expand these centers to serve adults and seniors – a concept which has flourished and continues to grow as we bring staff resources in assistive technology, counseling, mobility, interpreting, referral, therapy, educational and job training services to the homes, schools, businesses and communities in all 67 counties of Alabama.

Each Regional Center serves several counties. Most of our services are free to residents of Alabama with a diagnosed loss of 25% or more of hearing or vision, or children with a diagnosed developmental delay. To find the Regional Center closest to you, click on the map.

If you don’t find what you are looking for contact us and we’ll connect you with the Regional Center closest to you!

AIDB is Sole Certified Entity in the National Deaf Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP)

Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB) has been selected by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to be the sole authorized entity certified to participate in the National Deaf Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP) for Alabama. Effective July 2, 2012, the Program is slated to end July 2, 2014, with an opportunity to extend certification for an additional one year to July 2015.

Within the NDBEDP, AIDB will administer free, loaned communications devices to qualified persons who are deaf-blind. Devices will be provided statewide to Alabama residents through AIDB's E.H. Gentry Facility and network of eight statewide Regional Centers with device recommendations based on individual demand with AIDB/ Gentry Facility's Deaf-Blind Program and Assistive Technology expertise.

As one of 53 entities selected in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AIDB will provide individual assessments, individual training, equipment distribution, installation and maintenance as well as local outreach.

The FCC established the NDBEDP in response to the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).The CVAA directed the FCC to establish a program using funding of up to $10 million annually from the Interstate Telecommunications Relay Service Fund (TRS Fund) for the nationwide distribution of communications equipment to low-income individuals who are deaf-blind.

For a list of all 53 certified programs or for additional NDBEDP information, contact E.H. Gentry Facility Executive Director Travis Fields at (256) 761-3406.