Cheryl Anderson grew up in Lake Park, Minnesota, a small town of about 800 people. “Everyone knew everyone. Close-knit community.” The town was surrounded by lots of lakes, fields, and wildlife - the great outdoors. She attended public school there for 13 years, starting with kindergarten through 12th grade. Cheryl graduated with a class of 42 students. “We had a hearing impaired program, which it was called at the time, now a deaf/hard of hearing program with about 8-10 deaf/hard of hearing students.” She didn’t really use an interpreter until she was in high school where she used interpreters for classes such as science, history, and driver’s education. “I wanted to be like my hearing peers, didn’t want to be different, didn’t want to show my sign language, didn’t want people to see me go into speech therapy.” Cheryl played in the school band starting in fifth grade through her senior year and sang in the choir all four years of high school. “I had a really good school system. Sometimes kids would mock me, but that didn’t stop me from attending school. My mom always told me to keep my head up [and] ignore their sayings. That was back then, today they realized what they did back then and apologized. They now have more knowledge of us that have hearing loss.”
Cheryl works for Vocational Rehabilitation Services in St Paul as a Tech Support. She supports counselors with documents, puts them into the system, and has been in this job for a year now. She worked in school settings for many years, specifically deaf schools as a paraprofessional. She also did some interpreting on the side, especially for sports.
The part of work that Cheryl enjoys the most involves the research, gathering information, and data entry processes. “I miss doing this type of work.” She shares that she sometimes doesn't like dealing with people, preferring to work at her pace with fewer distractions. On the other hand, she loves the people she works with! “They have been really helpful, [and] patient with me, and don't criticize how I do things or my learning process. I have more knowledge about [diversity], [a] better understanding. They let me be who I am, I have a choice. Fun group of people.”
Cheryl doesn’t feel that there are challenges that she faces in her line of work. “Sometimes I don’t like answering phones, but it's something that I do, not often. Everyone is very helpful, not judgmental.”
She shares the following advice: “Let them know about your hearing loss, let them know how you want to communicate. It is OK to repeat what was said to make sure you understand what was said. How would you like to learn things, hands-on? Show me? Guide me? Write things down? Let them know.”
Outside of work, Cheryl enjoys watching sports, especially women’s volleyball and softball. She also loves doing anything outdoors such as hiking, walking, kayaking, sitting by the water, taking the back roads, and going on an adventure. “I have a ton of pictures that I need to put into books, when? That is my long-time project!”
She has two deaf adult children. She reminds them and others to, “Be open with your hearing loss, we need to train other people who are not familiar with it. Be you, you can do anything, go out there and challenge yourself. Explore! You can do it!”
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!
