World Hearing Day 2026 - from communities to classrooms

04/02/2026

World Hearing Day on Tuesday 3 March is a call to action from the World Health Organization. The aim is to raise awareness about preventing hearing loss and the promoting accessible ear and hearing care. This year's theme is ‘From communities to classrooms: hearing care for all children’. It highlights two critical priorities: preventing avoidable childhood hearing loss and ensuring early identification and appropriate care for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

‘From communities to classrooms’ resonates deeply with the work of the Centre's Child Deafness and Hearing Research Program. 

Our multidisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians and community partners is committed to creating a future where every Australian child who is deaf or hard of hearing can thrive. 

At the heart of our approach is genuine partnership with the deaf community, families and children themselves, ensuring their voices shape our research priorities and outcomes. 

Focus groups with deaf and hard of hearing children

It’s important that we share findings with the participants, families and communities that have been vital to our research. The first in a series of research snapshots shares what we know about how mild and one-sided hearing loss affects children’s spoken language and wellbeing.

Access the resource
 
The goal of the Child Deafness and Hearing Research Program is to give all deaf and hard of hearing children the best opportunities to reach their full potential by improving the systems that support them. Through major initiatives like the Australian National Child Hearing Health Outcomes Registry (ANCHOR), we're building a national data platform to track outcomes and reduce inequities in service access. Our Screen cCMV Project is ensuring babies receive timely testing for congenital cytomegalovirus, the most common infectious cause of childhood hearing loss. We're also gaining valuable insights into the health, wellbeing, and academic outcomes for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, through the Victorian Childhood Hearing Longitudinal Databank (VicCHILD).

Looking forward

The team is actively seeking additional funding to expand this vital work by learning from international colleagues at upcoming conferences. Associate Professor Valerie Sung will be giving a keynote presentation at the AG Bell Global Listening and Spoken Language Symposium (Washington, USA), and further presentations at the Hearing Across the Lifespan (Padova, Italy), and the 7th International Conference on Family Centred Early Intervention for Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (Bad Ischl, Austria). These opportunities will allow us to showcase Australia's world-class hearing health research and identify innovative approaches for improving hearing health care for all Australian children.

As we celebrate World Hearing Day 2026, we remain committed to our simple but essential message: all deaf and hard of hearing children should be given the best opportunities to reach their full potential, from communities to classrooms and everywhere in between.