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AAP
AAP
Health
Jack Gramenz

'Better future' vision for $75m sight, hearing centre

The NextSense centre in Sydney will deliver services for people with hearing and vision loss. (HANDOUT/NEXTSENSE)

Tens of thousands of Australians will benefit from a $75 million centre designed to bolster the nation's position as a world leader in combating vision and hearing loss.

The NextSense centre for innovation will deliver services to adults and children, while also conducting research and professional training.

The building's design caters to people with hearing and vision loss, including the highest-possible acoustic standards, braille signage and high-contrast fit-outs to aid with depth perception.

A school and pre-school are also part of the facility, launched on Tuesday at Macquarie Park, in Sydney's northwest.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who attended the unveiling, said the centre would soon become an incubator for world-leading innovation.

"Crucially, it represents the possibility of a better future for so many Australians with hearing or vision loss," he said.

"The centre will benefit more than 10,000 Australians each year, with the majority seen physically at the centre ... think about all the families that will benefit as well.

"The friends, the loved ones and ultimately the communities."

Not-for-profit NextSense houses its national operations at the centre, providing allied health and cochlear implant services.

The organisation's chief executive, Chris Rehn, told AAP that Australia was blessed to have world-leading technology, research and services for people with hearing and vision loss.

"The opportunity of a centre of innovation like ours is to bring it all together, working with like-minded organisations to see ... the great outcomes that we know are possible," he said.

The centre works with nearby Macquarie University and hearing implant manufacturer Cochlear, whose global headquarters are on the campus.

Mr Rehn said Australian experts could also help improve outcomes in other countries that did not have the same level of facilities.

"We're not just developing new ways of working but we're sharing that knowledge with others," he said.

NextSense grew from Australia's first school for deaf children, opened by deaf Scottish migrant Thomas Pattison in 1860.

The centre's school will aim to demonstrate ways mainstream schooling can be made more inclusive, as well as providing the best possible experience for the children attending.

"You can come, learn, be trained and see how to establish a school to be inclusive for people with hearing loss and vision loss ... it doesn't require that much work," Mr Rehn said.

The Commonwealth contributed $12.5 million towards the centre's cost, while the rest came from the 164-year-old organisation's donors and its funding reserves.

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