September 13, 2022 - Andrea Riffe (rhymes with "life") grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. She moved to Minnesota in 2001 to attend the University of Minnesota and majored in Speech, Language, and Hearing Science. Andrea then took a year off and worked as a nanny before getting her Master's of Education in Education for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing. She grew up attending mainstream schools and did not learn ASL until she was a junior in high school. She didn't even have a hearing aid until much later in life, as audiologists convinced her family that various surgeries would help "fix" her hearing loss. “I didn't really identify as Hard of Hearing until I went to grad school. Looking back, I wish I had had a different audiologist or a strong D/HH teacher during my childhood who had educated me and my family about hearing loss. I felt ashamed, and it was so unnecessary.”
Andrea is currently a teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (D/HH). She is licensed to teach Birth-age 21 but primarily works with middle and high school students in the general education setting. Her job is to assess students to see if they meet the Minnesota qualifications for D/HH services. Then, based on their needs, she educates her students, their general education teachers, and often their families. Andrea educates about the cause and impact of hearing loss, works with a team to establish accommodations, and teaches advocacy skills to ensure students have what they need to succeed in school and community settings. “We do provide academic support as well. If students have an ASL interpreter or a captionist, I work closely with them to be sure they have access to all academic materials so we can best support our students.”
She loves giving students and families the tools they need to succeed and teaching them about a part of their identity. “Identifying as Hard of Hearing was not a simple journey for me, and if I can ease that for other kids and families, that inspires me to keep teaching.” Andrea likes being a liaison to support her students' needs in the general education/hearing world. “I enjoy working with smaller groups of students and staff because it allows for strong connections and relationships, and frankly, I can hear better in a smaller group, too!”
Andrea's main challenges are the lack of captioning on materials for staff and students and the occasional teacher who does not consistently follow student accommodations and needs. “I have learned over the years to not have such a reactionary response but rather to educate and ask for a collaborative meeting to discuss needs. Sometimes building a relationship and taking the time to remind people that they don't get to choose the students' needs and accommodations is a simple solution.” Her school district has made improvements with captioning on media (especially since Covid), but she believes that she will fight the fight for accessibility until she retires.
Andrea shares the following advice: “Advocate for your needs because it betters you, your employer, and your clients/student/customer/patient, etc. Educate about and humanize your accessibility, needs, or accommodations.”
When not working, she enjoys reading, running, biking, walking her dogs, attending Saint Paul Saints games, and spending time with her family, their neighborhood, and their friends. Her husband, son (age two), and she enjoy traveling and camping together as well.
The #CanDoAnything campaign showcases people who are deaf, deafblind, or hard of hearing at work, giving them an opportunity to share what they do at their jobs and explain how communication access works for them. This campaign shows what our community can do, which is anything!
