July 27, 2022 - Kelsey Dahl was born to hearing parents in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Kelsey was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss when she was nine months old after a chickenpox illness and severe ear infections. She received her hearing aids at 15 months old. Kelsey started to learn sign language at the Harley Hopkins deaf preschool program. “This opens a can of worms for me, after so many struggles with communicating in mainstream school and working with hearing people that really have no patience working with a deaf person before. I have fought in so many ways to get my rights as a deaf person.” These experiences gave Kelsey a thick skin to advocate daily. “To educate the ignorant and to stop stigmatizing approaches.”
Kelsey grew up in a household with an older biological brother, biological father, and mother. Her biological brother only knows the alphabet and some basic signs but not fluently, and her biological father does not sign at all. Her mom is the only one that is engaged with ASL. Her mother remarried later, so a stepfather and two stepbrothers joined the family; they were willing to learn some ASL for her. ”I grew up in a home where I am speaking oral as the main communication method and read lips. I have faced many communication barriers with missing a lot of information at home that helps me discover and to be prepared by navigating real-life challenges out there in the hearing world independently as an adult.”
One of the many challenges is that after her parent's divorce, her biological father, now living out of state, would not communicate with her through video relay telephone services “because he kept thinking it was a scam. The cell phone Sidekick (a T-Mobile phone), Facebook messenger, and other chat features actually helped my life in many ways to keep in touch with my families and close friends instead of using third-party translators. I still do to this day.”
She attended mainstream school as the only Deaf person; she was provided with an ASL interpreter at the Robbinsdale area schools throughout her K-12 education journey. Kelsey entered high school with the first two years spent at one high school in Plymouth before transferring to St. Louis Park High School for the last two years. At the time, SLP had a sizable and well-known Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) program. “I transferred to St. Louis Park HS because of the lack of ASL interpreting services [at the previous school], and my grades were a little behind. That particular ASL interpreter always called in sick, and I went through several interpreter subs. Sometimes the interpreter didn’t show up at all. It was horrible, I was so fed up, and that led to me transferring to SLP High School for better guarantee of ASL interpreters.”
Upon graduating from high school in 2006, Kelsey attended Hennepin Technical College in Brooklyn Park and then transferred to Minneapolis Community Technical College (MCTC) in Minneapolis, where she eventually completed a bachelor's degree in Human Services at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul in 2013.
Her mother is a “very strong advocate in my life and invested in my education to be sure I have all accommodations needs. Also, she made sure I was able to socialize with deaf peers outside of school.“
Kelsey worked in the Mental Health Services department with People Incorporated, which has provided services to deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind adults for 15 years. That time range also includes working in a group home for ten years. Kelsey worked in targeted case management, where she served in several counties within the Twin Cities metro area for five years.
Kelsey also kept busy with several side jobs over the years, including job coaching, Support Service Provider (SSP) services to Deafblind clients, and managing the Charles Thompson Memorial Hall Deaf Club. She also did some flex jobs for Amazon. She was one of the first Deaf people to participate as an electoral judge (in Isanti county) during the coronavirus pandemic for the presidential election. Recently, Kelsey did absentee ballot jobs for the Isanti-Cambridge 911 district election.
When Kelsey lost her job with People Incorporated a while back, she faced some time gaps where she went through life without health insurance due to her Diabetes. “It was a challenging time for me, with my hearing loss barriers, for employment opportunities, plus living in a rural area.” She also mentioned the challenge that the pandemic brought onto her journey.“ It did not help during the COVID-19 pandemic wave, which "took me navigating through a complicated state-level system to get financial assistance and resources that are not deaf-friendly to start with.”
Currently, Kelsey is working as a part-time Behavior Modification Assistant employee under the Minnesota State Operated Community Services (MSOCS). MSOCS is a service run directly by the State of Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). It serves people with mental health and disabilities in residential foster care settings in Washington County. She is the only deaf employee at this particular house. Kelsey wears a hearing aid on her left ear and can speak plus read lips well to interact with hearing co-workers and clients. “They’re so patient with me by having them wear a clear mask during a pandemic in order to communicate with me. It is not an easy job to work in the hearing world, and [it] takes a lot of my energy to work with them. I really enjoy helping clients to make a difference in their lives and encourage advocacy.”
Kelsey shares the following advice: “Just be yourself; there’s nothing to be ashamed of, being different from others. Embrace the uniqueness that does give systematic change to improve better needs for others and yourself. Open some doors, and you’ll find your way through successfully with confidence. Be inspired!”
She is heavily involved in advocating for the Minnesota Deaf community and the local community where she lives. Kelsey serves as Treasurer on the Minnesota Association for Deaf Citizens board (MADC). She is also the vice president of Charles Thompson Memorial Hall and is engaged in assisting elevator funds and helping with some events.
Outside of work and volunteering, Kelsey enjoys hiking with her three dogs, traveling, and doing genealogy studies. That interest led to a trip to Sweden for two weeks in May to meet her Swedish cousins, whom she discovered through genealogical research. She lives in Isanti on Rum River, which she calls home.
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!
