JaNahne “Jan” McCready-Johnson
JaNahne “Jan” McCready-Johnson was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, north of the Twin Cities. Bom to hearing parents with four siblings, of which three are deaf. “Oldest sister Ruth Ann is deaf, second sister Betty Lou is hearing, then there's me, and fourth, eight years later is my brother Jerry, also deaf.” Her parents did not know why three of their four children were deaf. Jan was very grateful for her parents for driving down 225 miles each way to the Minnesota School for the Deaf (now Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf), then back home every time to see whenever she or Ruth Ann or Jerry participated in an activity. Her sister Betty Lou would stay home to take care of milking the cows or complete farm chores. “It definitely showed [our] parents full of love and support for each of us Deaf children.”
In 1948, the Minneapolis Star Tribune selected Jan's family as the Upper Midwest Family. The photographers took pictures of the family living on the farm. The Star Tribune inserted the pictures and story of the family into a vault which also contained many different things such as religion, business, etc. It has been stored for 100 years. “It will be opened in 2048 for people to see what life during 1948 looked like.”An interesting “small world” tidbit about the photographer, his name was Bonham Cross, who was hearing and later lost his hearing due to wartime. He decided to enroll in the ASL classes at St. Paul TVI. “After I saw his name on this 1948 newspaper article, I approached him and showed him his name on the newspaper with all the pictures of my family. He kept saying, ‘Oh, that’s you!... oh that’s you!’ Shocking that we were now connected from me being five years old and him being in his 60s.”
Jan attended Minnesota School for the Deaf (MSD), now known as Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf in Faribault. She graduated in 1961 as a Valedictorian and received several honors. She attended Minnesota School of Business in Minneapolis for a 9-month course. At that time, it was unheard of for sign language interpreters, so Jan did not have any interpreters throughout the 6 months, learning how to operate office machines. She would ask the instructor after class to get more assistance. Because the last 3 months would focus on lectures only, Jan decided to quit. She was able to go to that school with help from Vocational Rehab (VR). Then the VR counselor helped Jan find a job without her taking an initiative to look for jobs, apply and interview. Jan did not appreciate the lack of empowerment in the role but had to accept the job due to her upcoming wedding.
Jan got married a year after her graduation to Rollin McCready, who was also deaf and attended MSD as well. They had four children across five years. Unfortunately, Rollin passed away from a heart attack at age 39 in 1978. In the meantime, Jan worked as a saleslady selling Bison vacuum cleaners, Tupperware dealer, and Income Tax Preparer. Jan appreciated and owed a deep gratuity to her Tupperware manager for boosting her self-confidence that she 'CAN DO IT!’ She also learned to believe in herself.
Jan went to H&R Block Income Tax three times a week for six weeks, again without interpreting services. She eventually got a job with them, but had to quit. Jan did not like their system of charging the consumers. She owned a part-time business doing the tax returns for people, mostly deaf.
In 1976, Jan got a job at St. Paul Technical Vocational Institute (TVI) as a Teacher Assistant. That was the early years when interpreter training programs were starting to emerge all over the US. The federal government provided the financial dollars. In the first two years of her job, she traveled throughout 11 states with a coworker, Becky Carison, who was hearing and newly certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). The purpose was to provide enhancement tools to new interpreters. Jan along with Becky also trained people in six weeks to become interpreters during the summer. “Imagine that, such a short time! Imagine that short time! However, to be honest and amazing that many of them did become skilled!” Coincidentally, TVI had a Program for Deaf Students (PDS), so the interpreting students had great opportunities to mingle with them. They gained an intensive experience with sign language and cultural experiences. In two years, Jan was promoted to an Instructor. She also obtained a RID Reverse Interpreting Certificate.
In 1977, Jan was shocked to find that sign language was recognized as a true language, not English, so that inspired her to further her knowledge and enhanced teaching.
Jan presented many times to groups at National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Conference, Conference of Interpreter Trainers (CIT), Minnesota Association of Deaf Citizens (MADC), and Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). “During those conferences, it was great to see many Deaf people using ASL with great confidence and [I] did learn a lot from them!”
In the early 80s Jan realized that many Deaf people did not know that ASL was a legitimate language, and they have their own Deaf Culture. So she decided to offer a class "ASL for Deaf Adults". “Boy, you could see many of their faces "shocked" to find that their language is REAL, not English and they now were able to get rid of their inhibitions about signing. Some even said they were born again.” Because ASL classes were booming, they did not have enough ASL teachers. So Jan decided to offer a class called "How to Teach ASL". Jan was very pleased to see a lot of those Deaf adults being hired to teach ASL in various institutions. Jan felt that it was her biggest accomplishment and so proud of those Deaf teachers.
Jan was one of the founders to establish the Loon ASLTA (American Sign Language Teachers Association) Chapter in Minnesota, and served in some offices. She also served on the National ASLTA Board for ten years. She was their Secretary and Treasurer. Again, she was a certified ASLTA evaluator who would evaluate ASL teachers.
Jan has faced plenty of challenges in her journey! While teaching at TVI, now St. Paul College, the Interpreter Training Program (ITP) has gone through changes from a 6 week course to a 6 months one, then 9 months, then 2 years. Also the format of the program kept changing. The best part for Jan is that she had a team of wonderful teachers, both hearing and deaf. The ITP students would spend 35 hours learning about interpreting and anything related to interpreting and deaf related each week with four of the teachers rotating in different subject areas. Jan’s main focus was teaching how to translate from English to ASL, Deaf History, and Deaf Culture.
While teaching, Jan served on the board of directors of DEAF (Deafness, Education, Advocacy Foundation). DEAF, as a c4 status created by Minnesota Association of Deaf Citizens MADC), was created to enable them to carry out with grants. It was one of the first organizations in America to provide Video Relay Services (VRS). It partnered with MCI who was coincidentally led by Jan’s brother, Jerry Nelson! What a huge learning experience for Jan!
Jan has been quite pleased to see her former students whenever she goes out in the community or during her appointments. They continue to do great jobs. Many of them would take time to thank Jan for teaching them through complimentary comments.
Jan as a representative of National ASLTA, attended the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) conference. The President sat with Jan during lunch, quizzing her about ASL. She did not believe that ASLwas a legitimate language until Jan explained about Deaf Culture. She was shocked by the fact that Deaf Culture is literally linked to ASL, so she wrote a nice article about it to the membership. Jan is very pleased to see a good number of ASL teachers nowadays with ACTFL and they gave presentations on it.
Jan felt very fortunate to have met a wonderful man after Rollin passed away. His name is Neil Johnson and they have been married for 45 years. Ironically, Neil also took Jan’s classes and got the job teaching ASL at TVI, eventually with the ITP staff teaching the first year students for a total of 13 years. Jan and Neil retired from the ITP at the same time in 2002.
Jan and Neil have a very blessed life with four wonderful children and four grandchildren, plus two great-grandchildren now ages 7 and 3. They are looking forward to seeing them using ASL. Jan and Neil truly cherish spending their time with their family.
Jan loves sewing and mending. She just completed sewing her great grandson's bedroom curtains. Jan enjoys playing games on the computer such as Jigsaw (puzzles), Solitaire, and Dominos. Neil enjoys challenging Jan in games of Scrabble and other board games!
Jan shares the following advice: "Always keep a positive outlook on yourself. Avoid falling into the trap of negativity. Ignore the naysayers that bring you down. Make every effort to uplift people by telling them positive things about them and praising them.”
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!
