While the public health system in Mexico is supposed to be universal, reality tells a different story. A significant percentage of the total population—most being from poor, rural areas—is unable to access even the most basic health services such as immunizations, pre- and postnatal care and routine check-ups.

Those living in or near major urban centers receive health care from state-run hospitals or through private clinics. State-run hospitals provide a range of services but are severely limited in their capacity to provide thorough health care due to cumbersome bureaucracy and a chronic lack of finances, resources and trained personnel. Private clinics offer a better quality of health care, but are often far too expensive for the average working-class Mexican.

For disabled individuals in Mexico, adequate and affordable rehabilitation equipment and programs are extremely difficult to find outside of the large cities. Customarily, the duty of taking care of a disabled person falls exclusively upon the family. Thus, those families with proper resources can pay for the needed services and those with limited funds use what services they can find and/or afford. Disabled people from backgrounds of extreme poverty often face a hard life of seeking charity or begging in the streets to support themselves.

In Oaxaca, hundreds of thousands of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals are in need of low-cost rehabilitative services. Pre-screening and diagnostic services to identify and determine the level of hearing loss are non-existent outside the capital city. Hearing tests, hearing aids, and related services are available within private clinics in Oaxaca City but are extremely costly.

To purchase a standard behind-the-ear hearing aid, the retail price is approximately US$500-$1,000. Hearing tests cost another US$25-$35, and hearing aid batteries run US$7 per package. On top of these costs, there are additional expenses for hearing aid maintenance and repair. With the average Oaxacan family earning less than US$5,000 a year, many individuals with hearing loss have no other choice than to go without treatment, thus severely limiting their opportunities in life.

The Mexican government provides little assistance to hearing-impaired people in Oaxaca. The overburdened, government agency, Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), offers by lottery only 50 free-of-cost hearing aids per year to clients. Patients in the DIF system may also receive inexpensive hearing tests, but the agency's audiometers and other diagnostic equipment are in a near constant state of disrepair.

Providing a patient with hearing aids is just the first step in the ongoing process of rehabilitation. Patients must be taught not only how to use and maintain their hearing aids, but they also require assistance and support in learning to communicate and operate within the hearing community. This is achieved through ongoing education and therapy tailored to the needs and circumstances of each patient. Few organizations in Oaxaca provide education geared explicitly toward deaf children. The Centro Oaxaqueño de Rehabilitación de Audición y Lenguaje, A.C. (CORAL) works to help low-income deaf and hard-of-hearing children and adults by bridging the gap between extraordinarily expensive private clinics and virtually non-existent government services. CORAL provides no- to low-cost hearing tests, hearing aids, clinic services, language rehabilitation, outreach and advocacy to approximately 750 disabled individuals and their families annually.

For every individual who enters the CORAL system, there are hundreds of others in desperate need of our services. Without the help of CORAL, many children and adults remain relegated to a life of silence, cut off from family, friends and the greater community, often with tragic results. CORAL provides the deaf and hard-of-hearing clients it serves a chance lead a normal life, in an area of Mexico where such opportunities are few and far between.