December 3, 2021 - Jeremy Neiderer was born in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. He was born hearing, and his deafness was discovered when he was around 18 months old. An ear infection caused hearing loss. Over the years, he would continue to lose hearing. “Recent testing showed full loss in the right ear, with the left ear slowly losing hearing over the years.” Jeremy is the only Deaf person in his family. Both of his parents and his older sister are hearing. Both of his parents learned ASL from college when Jeremy was a toddler. “They learned the basics. My sister, on the other hand, picked it up quickly, especially during middle school when an ASL class was offered.” Now, his sister lives far away, and the two are no longer as close as they used to be. She doesn’t sign as much, and neither do their parents.
Jeremy was mainstreamed throughout his K-12 years and graduated from Coon Rapids High School. Growing up, he used Pidgin Signed English as his primary mode of communication. “At that time, ASL was still in its infancy, still being developed as a fully-fledged language.” He took ASL in high school and made the switch over. During his time at CRHS, there was a large Deaf and Hard of Hearing program, with about thirty DHH students in the program.
Upon graduation from high school, Jeremy didn’t attend college right away as he was still exploring his options in life and trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his future. Eleven years later, he decided to take up photography at St. Paul College. Jeremy attended the school for a year to attain a certificate in photography. The program did not meet his need, and he wanted to continue his education, so Jeremy decided to attend Dakota County Technical College for in-depth courses in photography. That led to two more years of learning for him, leading to graduation in 2017 with four different degrees and certificates.
He works at a photography lab, White House Custom Colors in Eagan. He works in frame handling, where he cleans and takes inventory of materials. He has been working there full-time for the past four years.
Jeremy is glad to have a Deaf coworker at his workplace. When he was first hired, the Human Resources agent mentioned to him that there was another Deaf worker there, and “I was thrilled to find that out, as that meant we could communicate with each other!” Jeremy uses text-based communication options such as texting or writing via paper and pen to communicate with the staff, including his team leader, manager, and coworkers. “It’s mostly texting nowadays since we all have phones, and there’s quite a bit of communication happening around the building.” He also mentions that the staff uses the Slack workplace communication app, which has been highly beneficial for everyone, not just him.
Communication is a challenge at work, and Jeremy tries to teach his coworkers sign language, but it’s challenging as they don’t pick it up quickly or forget what they learned. Jeremy mentions high turnover as another reason new folks are coming in and leaving. It also has been a challenge communicating with HR to acquire sign language interpreters for meetings. “Every day, we all learn something new.” He would love to see more Deaf folks join at the workplace to balance things out.
Outside work, Jeremy enjoys going for walks and hanging out with friends. He recently joined a gym to work out. He also loves to travel. He used to work at Thompson Hall as an event coordinator and social media manager, which he performed for two years up to resigning from the positions this past March. He continues his passion for hosting fun events, ranging from floating down rivers in tubes to seeing movies.
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!
