Hearing loss affects the most basic human need to connect with one another. The first steps to improving outcomes—aiding and restoring hearing, providing oral and/or sign language—are only the beginning. 3Cairns is committed to identifying, creating, and promoting solutions that connect d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people to the world around them. We realize this philosophy in two independent spaces: RuffLab Academic Laboratory at Indiana University, and 3Cairns in Portland, Oregon.