Gateway Maryland

10/16/2026

The Gateway Giving Guild is how a lot of our work quietly gets funded — not through one big check, but through members giving consistently, month after month. 💙

Membership starts at just $5/month, with four tiers to fit different levels of support. It's a simple, steady way to be part of Gateway's mission year-round.

Learn more about joining the Giving Guild: https://gatewaymaryland.org/donate/

10/15/2026

It's National Audiology Awareness Month, and we're sharing a few things that surprise most people about hearing health.

10/14/2026

Today, our ASL Coordinator, Ingrid, will teach us the sign for "Fall."

Please share this with your friends, colleagues, and family!

10/13/2026

Access planning often defaults to what's easiest for the organization, not what the Deaf person actually wants. That's backwards.

Deaf autonomy means choice — in communication method, in who interprets for them, in how they want to be included. An organization's job isn't to decide what access looks like on someone's behalf. It's to ask, and build the plan around the answer.

This shows up in small moments as much as big ones: whether someone prefers written notes or a live interpreter, whether they want family involved in a conversation or not. The details vary. The principle doesn't.

Good access starts with listening to the person it's for.

If you need guidance on what access means, learn more about our services: https://gatewaymaryland.org/

10/12/2026

October's NDEAM (National Disability Employment Awareness Month) theme — Celebrating Value and Talent — is worth sitting with. Value and talent aren't the hard part; organizations already know their hires bring real skill. The harder part is whether the workplace was set up to let that talent show up.

Access has a timeline. If you're bringing on a Deaf or hard of hearing employee, the interpreting plan, meeting accommodations, and onboarding materials need to exist before day one — not get improvised in week three.

Organizations don't need every answer, but they do need a plan. Gateway works with Maryland employers to build that plan before it's needed.

10/09/2026

Most people wait about 9 years between noticing a hearing change and treating it.

That gap has a cost: Johns Hopkins research links untreated hearing loss to higher dementia risk and roughly triple the risk of falls. The 2017 Lancet Commission named it the single largest modifiable risk factor for dementia — one of the few you can actually act on.

The good news: a major NIH trial found treating hearing loss measurably slowed cognitive decline.

This October, for National Audiology Awareness Month, we broke down what the research says.

Read it here: https://gatewaymaryland.org/why-waiting-costs-more-than-time-what-the-research-says-about-treating-hearing-loss-early-a-national-audiology-awareness-month-feature-from-gateway/

10/08/2026

The National Deaf Center's latest piece makes a simple but important point: interpreters matter, but access is bigger than interpreting alone. Student affairs teams need deaf-specific competency to build real belonging, not just compliance.

Worth a read for anyone working in higher ed access and inclusion.

Read the story here: https://nationaldeafcenter.org/news-items/deaf-students-belong-beyond-the-classroom/

Your deaf students are ready to belong. Learn how to build the infrastructure your student affairs team needs to make it happen.

10/06/2026

For 100 years, Gateway has been in the business of listening, literally and figuratively.

Long before "hearing health" was a monthly observance, it was part of our mission. Our audiology program carries that century-old belief forward: understanding starts with really hearing someone.

Now we're asking our community to help carry it into the next 100 years. We're inviting 100 new members to join the Gateway Giving Guild before our 100th birthday on November 19. Monthly gifts start at just $5 and help keep services like audiology, interpreting, and therapy within reach for Marylanders who rely on them.

Will you be one of the 100?

https://gatewaymaryland.org/donate/

10/02/2026

Spooky season is coming here! Today, Ingrid will show us the sign for "Spider."

Don't forget to share with your friends, family and colleagues!

10/01/2026

Most people don't think about their hearing until it's already changed.

That's part of the problem. Hearing loss is often invisible, gradual, and easy to write off — "I just need people to stop mumbling" — until it's affecting work, relationships, and safety. October is National Audiology Awareness Month, and it's worth saying plainly: hearing health isn't just an aging issue, it's a communication issue, and communication issues deserve real evaluation, not guesswork.

Gateway's audiology team works with patients across every age group, because hearing loss doesn't check ID.

Learn more: https://gatewaymaryland.org/services/audiology/