OKLAHOMA CITY -- A new state-of-the-art facility for the University of Oklahoma College of Allied Health -- the largest single provider of allied health professionals in Oklahoma -- will be dedicated in a public ceremony Sept. 18.

The ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m. at 1200 N. Stonewall Ave. in Oklahoma City, on the OU Health Sciences Center campus.

Speakers will be OU President David L. Boren; Joseph Ferretti, senior vice president and provost of the Health Sciences Center; Dean Kevin Rudeen; and College of Allied Health Student Body President Thomas Lemke.

"After many years of waiting, OU's College of Allied Health will have one of the finest facilities in the country to house its outstanding academic health programs," Boren said.

The College of Allied Health encompasses programs in physical and occupational therapy, communication sciences and disorders, medical imaging and radiation sciences, and nutrition and allied health sciences.

The college is Oklahoma's only trainer of audiologists, occupational therapists, nuclear medicine technologists and radiation therapists. It also is home to the John W. Keys Speech and Hearing Clinic, specializing in education and remediation of speech, language and hearing impairments in children and adults, and the Lee Mitchener Tolbert Library and Resource Center for Developmental Disabilities, which houses the Oklahoma Autism Network.

The college also houses the Oklahoma Assistive Technology Center, dedicated to providing quality assistive technology services to Oklahomans with disabilities and their families, as well as professional and community education and technical assistance.

With more than $1 million in research and training grants awarded last year, the college is the only college of Allied Health in the United States with a Lokomat training system, combining treadmill training and robotics in the quest to improve a person's ability to walk. The college has one of only two programs in the state that train physical therapists.

The new 114,000-square-foot building includes up-to-date laboratories, distance education and computer facilities, clinical and research space and an early intervention pre-school program for children with delayed communication development, as well as student areas, classrooms and faculty and staff offices.

For more information or for accommodations on the basis of disability, call the Office of Special Events at 325-3784, or e-mail specialevents@ou.edu.