[Descriptive transcript: Video opens with an animated slide with blue and green blocks moving onto a white background, which transitions to a white slide, with the logo for the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing on top, and the logo for the Minnesota Employment and Economic Development Vocational Rehabilitation Services logo on bottom. Video transitions to new slide, showing “CanDoAnything Panel Interviews: Hard of Hearing Community Members”. Animated blocks of green and blue slide into a white background with text: “The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the panelists and moderator and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent or the state of Minnesota.” Video transitions an animated pattern of blue and teal shapes that transitions to a video to show Elise Knopf, who is signing.]
>> Elise: Hello, my name is Elise Knopf. I work for Vocational Rehabilitation Services (VRS), for the State of Minnesota. My pronouns are she, her, and hers. I’m wearing black attire, with glasses, and earrings. My hair is dirty blonde, depending on who’s asking. I’m thrilled to be here today for this panel. We have a wonderful panel of people ready to share stories about their experiences with work and school. This came out of a project sponsored by the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing, the #CanDoAnything campaign. You may have seen that on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. These are stories about diverse people and their accomplishments in the workplace. This stems from a project spearheaded by the Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing, titled #CanDoAnything campaign. You may have seen these stories on social media including Facebook, Twitter and so on. These stories spotlight various individuals and their successes in the workplace. I’m thrilled to be here to talk about why it is vital for students to see people who are like themselves. Today’s panel consists of hard of hearing individuals and they will be sharing their stories. So, I’ll go ahead and start introductions. The first panelist we have is Trish - hello, Trish.
[Elise gestures to the side, and video cuts to Trish Allen, who speaks. A small picture-in-picture bubble shows an interpreter signing.]
>> Trish: Hi, my name is Trish Allen. My pronouns are she, her, hers. I am wearing a black jacket with a black shirt with pink flowers. I am a learning center specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Superior and I am hard of hearing.
[Video cuts to Heidy Nazario, who speaks. A small picture-in-picture bubble shows an interpreter signing.]
>> Heidy: Hi, my name is Heidy Nazario, and my pronouns are she, her. I’m wearing a burnt orange sweater and I have curly hair. I am profoundly deaf, and I use a cochlear implant in my left ear, and currently I am a Minnesota Hands and Voices DHH Guide program coordinator.
[Video cuts to Cheryl Anderson, who speaks. A small picture-in-picture bubble shows an interpreter signing..]
>> Cheryl: Hi, I’m Cheryl Anderson. I am wearing a black, long sleeve top, long brown curly hair and glasses. I am hard of hearing myself. I wear two hearing aids.
[Video cuts back to Elise.]
>> Elise: Wonderful, thank you for introducing yourselves. As we all know, we have a lot of different identities whether we are deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind. Whatever identity folks associate themselves with, we respect. We also know that identities develop over time. For example, when I was growing up, I identified myself as hearing impaired. Over time I switched to Deaf. I’d like to start off this panel with a question about their high school experiences, thinking back about what happened to you in school - please share where you all went to school? High school, college, what was it like for you all? Trish, would you mind starting?
[Video cuts to Trish.]
>> Trish: So I went to Maple Grove Senior High School in Maple Grove, Minnesota, which is a suburb of Minneapolis in the Twin Cities area. I knew I was hard of hearing since I was three years old. So I was on an IEP since I was in kindergarten, and I was immersed in the classroom since that time and my experience going through elementary school to high school was that I was pulled out of the classroom and I hated it. I really did not like the experience of being pulled out of the classroom. So I would often try to ignore that or I would - I would do what I needed to do, but I did my best to ignore the fact that I was hard of hearing, or just push it to the side, so that my peers would not realize that I was hard of hearing, I just tried to fit as much into the hearing world as I possibly could, and diminish the fact that I was hard of hearing as much as I could to try and fit in with the hearing world. The people that I’ve worked with in the school were wonderful, and great. But I just - my experience in high school was that I wanted to fit in as much as I could. The services were great, like I said, but my experience was, I wanted to fit in because I was very much immersed in the hearing world.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Thank you. I know it’s a difficult time in high school, trying to figure out who you are, so it’s difficult. I appreciate your sharing that. Next, we have Heidy.
[Video cuts to Heidy.]
>> Heidy: I went to high school in Puerto Rico, a small town called Juncos. The high school’s name is Isabel Flores. In high school is when I learned that I was hard of hearing, and that my parents - that it was genetic, and progressive. I did not know about any resources or anything that was available to me. So, the only thing that I could do at the moment was talk to my teachers and my friends about how to communicate with me, or the teachers. For example, I would tell them that I needed to be moved a little more towards the center - that for me, was the best space to sit in a classroom where I could hear the teachers. I could also hear my peers. I had a lot of support from the teachers, friends, and family as much as they could - as much as they know. So it was overall a good experience. However, since my hearing was progressive, my hearing loss progressive, I did have to learn every year about what were the accommodations that I needed and how to tell others how to communicate with me.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Yeah. During those years, it is so important to learn about self-advocacy skills It is not always easy to be able to talk about yourself or what your needs are. We need to learn how to first, be able to understand, and to be able to talk about it. I appreciate your sharing that with us. Now, Cheryl?
[Video cuts to Cheryl.]
>> Cheryl: I grew up in this small town of 800 people, Lake Park in northern Minnesota, which is by Detroit Lakes. We did - at that time we had a hard of hearing program, a hearing impaired program, and we had students from around the area that came to our school. We had like, maybe eight students there and we had interpreters and hearing teachers and like Trish said, I hated to be pulled out of the classroom too. I wanted to be like my peers. I wanted to be in a hearing world and - so I kind of - you know, go to speech and like - “okay, nobody’s watching me” - I go to this room. I’m in this room, so I usually go to speech when there’s no changes in classes, but you know how today it’s good to have speech. We had a really, really good program in our school and I was there for 13 years. I found out I had a hearing loss, probably when I was five or seven, after my brother was born and ironically my doctor told my mom not to have any more kids after my brother because they will be deaf too, and Mom ignored that, and had two more kids and they were hearing and they were fine, and she supported me all my life, and told me to keep my head up, push forward, you can do it. My mom would always be there for me.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Wow! Each one of you presented a unique perspective through your experiences. Thank you all. I’m thinking again about your experiences in high school, and the services you received - can you share a little more about the specific services you received in high school and for in transition programs? Who guided you? Do you mind - Trish?
[Video cuts to Trish.]
>> Trish: Yeah. So I was diagnosed with my hearing loss when I was 3 years old. So throughout my time in elementary school through middle school, and high school, I had a case manager that I worked with through an IEP plan. I would be taken out of my classroom typically about once a week in elementary school and that it would gradually decrease as I was going through school and it became about once a trimester - is what we had when I was in high school, because I was able to work pretty independently at that point and it was just about working on my goals of academic success at that point, and like really, being able to advocate for myself and being able to inform the teachers of what I needed, and really letting them know I need to be at the front of the classroom or repeating questions if I needed further instruction on something if I missed anything - really being able to stand up for myself if I missed something because this was something that I really struggled with when I was in high school. So I met with the case manager and towards the time of - my end of my college career, I met with them a little bit more as I was transitioning from my high school career into my college career to really talk about the accommodation process in college because of the fact that it is a lot different. I would have to opt into those services in college versus just being told that I had to use them when I was in high school.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: That’s a wonderful explanation about the transition of learning about self-advocacy to actually being able to advocate for yourself in college. I know that a lot of people really are trying to teach students how to do that - it is not easy. So I appreciate your sharing that with us. Next, we have Heidy.
[Video cuts to Heidy.]
>> Heidy: Well, because my journey really started when I was in high school, I didn’t know much about the services or resources - unfortunately I couldn’t really use any of the resources available because I didn’t know what they were. The only thing that I had was the support of my family and my friends and the teachers who knew that I needed a little extra help in the sense of maybe repeating something that I didn’t understand, and moving me when I asked - that I couldn’t - that I could move somewhere else. There was a counselor at school and she did help us through choosing what would be a good career for us, what we needed to do as a career, but I unfortunately did not know about any resources up until when I went to college and there is - when like Trish, I was offered accommodations. That, really, I could benefit from.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: It’s true, learning about what you need, over time, is what one needs to be successful. Sometimes you’re right, you don't always know what you need. Having family and friends to guide you along, that is wonderful. Cheryl?
[Video cuts to Cheryl.]
>> Cheryl: We had a really, really good program, and honestly, I do not know how they found the resources that they needed. Like I said, we had several hard of hearing students, mostly deaf students. I want to say about maybe seven or eight for the small town of 800 people and, yeah, we all grew up with - you know, teachers for the deaf and hard of hearing, interpreters - and we’ve all had, like hearing aids those big box hearing aids that we had, color corded hearing aids that match the microphone. We would carry a microphone around and give it to the teachers and they were speaking to that and - those are the one things I really hate wearing those big honking things. I just couldn’t wait until the end of the day but then… Yeah, we had a really good program. I’m kind of surprised, you know, coming from a small town and you know, I was there from the 70s to the 80s and so that was way, way back…
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: That’s rare, especially for the 70s and 80s. It is nice to hear about those experiences. Thinking about your journey from high school to college, and now you all are working in specific job fields. How did you get there? How did you decide to be where you are today?
[Video cuts to Trish.]
>> Trish: So my journey was not a linear path. I did not just decide on a career path, and just stuck to it and go to that place. I started in the psychology major and then added a political science major after that and then I went into social work for my master’s program thinking that I was going to be a case manager working for - uh like Child Protective Services in the county. I did that as an internship, and I really appreciated the work, but it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t what I wanted to be doing long-term, and then looking back on my career - college career and everything, I realized that what I really enjoyed doing was learning. I really enjoyed that process, so I ended up finding the job that I have now, which is the Learning Center specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Superior in the Educational Success Center. So I run our tutoring services and work with students on academic problems and returning from academic suspension, and I work with them on building their academic skills, and just kind of building their academic successes and really helping with growth mindset and a lot of those things. I work with a lot of students who do have disabilities and doing a lot of these things. So I selected this career because it’s something that I truly believe that everybody has the ability to learn no matter what background they’re coming from. No matter where, what abilities they have, and it just - it might take a little bit of getting there but we can all get there with the right resources and the right tools, and I want to be able to help lift everybody to get to that place. So that’s how I kind of - that’s a short version of my journey but that is why I chose my profession.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Well, we found out during the last panel, and this one too, that our journeys don’t always take the straightest route. I tell students all the time, just embrace the experience - doesn’t matter where it takes you. All of those experiences give us the skills that we can develop and use as we continue forward. I’m curious - we have Heidy next, about your experience.
[Video cuts to Heidy.]
>> Heidy: That’s true for me too. It was not linear at all. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a vet and then I went to college, I first started with tourism. I finished that degree and then I went to education so I’m a preschool and elementary school teacher, and then after that I wanted to go into occupational therapy. And the reason behind all this is because I just wanted to help. I wanted to help students and I wanted to help individuals reach their goals in that journey. My aunt, who lives here in Minnesota, said that there were a lot of resources here for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, and that’s when I came here, and I was so happy to find out the whole world of resources that I was missing out on. And that’s where I ended up now in my current job where I oversee staff who are like me, deaf or hard of hearing, and deafblind, and what we do is, we offer support for families that have a child who is deaf or hard of hearing, and we’re sort of a role model for them, and it’s something that I’m really passionate about because I wish I would have had that when I was first found out that I was deaf/hard of hearing. It’s something that - it’s really helpful to know there’s someone else out there that is like you, that has similar experiences. So that’s where I ended up. That’s how I ended up where I am now.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: That story about being role models - yes, many students do not really have access to role models. How do we expect them to learn, if they do not know anyone who is like them? So that is really helpful. It’s wonderful to see that you’ve arrived at that place where you can influence others. Thank you. Now, next we have Cheryl.
[Video cuts to Cheryl.]
>> Cheryl: I was a camper for a long time at a camp called Courage North, and that is a deaf and hard of hearing camp, and I really love going there every summer. So, my path and going to college was - I had two choices: go to Gallaudet College - at that time - now it’s Gallaudet University - or St. Mary’s Junior College as a physical therapist assistant. The reason why I wanted to be a physical therapist assistant is because I like helping - helping people, you know, develop their strengths. We had one in our school, and I would be able to help them, be their assistant, and then at Gallaudet College -University - I had a friend from camp who encouraged me to apply there. So I got accepted to both colleges, and I’m like, okay, which one do I want to go to? So I decided to go to Gallaudet and it was just shocking for me because it was like, everything but just deaf - big, big huge city coming from a town of 800 people and… But I had a lot of friends, a lot of good support out there, and learned my way around… Then after that, I worked at an office in Maryland, and then I decided to work at a school there - I was like a para and had been doing that for so many years. And now, I am here at the Vocational Rehabilitation, and I always like working in the office too. To work to the school year - during the school year was nice to - you know, having the summers off. But my kids have grown and they’re pretty much on their own and so I like being back in the office and working, and I had a really, really good transition counselor at my public school who helped guide me to get to where I needed to be.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Wonderful. All of your stories, and your experiences, will really contribute to the success of students out there watching and knowing that they can relate and think about their own journeys. Who will be helpful to them? Who are the right people to reach out to if they need support? It’s not always easy to identify sometimes who can be helpful, and It is essential to start somewhere, first by assessing one’s own self and then through that, I’m wondering about your experiences with reasonable accommodations? What kind of accommodations do you use in your current jobs or everyday, and in your home lives too? Would you mind sharing some of those? Trish?
[Video cuts to Trish.]
>> Trish: I am - my hearing loss is mild to moderate so you can call that lucky. I don’t know how I would phrase it… It’s not lucky. It’s not unlucky. It’s just the way that my life is. So, I can reasonably go through the world and wear hearing aids if I want to, or I can choose to not wear hearing aids if I want to. Not wearing aids means that I miss things sometimes and that’s not always the best experience so… One of my accommodations is to wear hearing aids when I am speaking with people. I also try to have Zoom meetings where I am working because I am able to then put in my headphones and adjust the volume when I am able to do that. Then when I do Zoom meetings, I can then enable the captions that - they’re automatic and that’s really helpful for me as well. And then just having captions whenever I am able to have captions is really - just the very biggest thing that I really am - I really desperately need this was something that I didn’t have in college, and I didn’t realize I needed in college, and I wish I would have had in college. And it’s something that looking back and saying I wish I would have requested it. But now that I am older and wiser, I recognize that as an accommodation that is a necessary accommodation for me.
[Video cuts away to Elise.]
>> Elise: That’s definitely something to consider in our futures too. What’s it going to look like? Interpreters, captioning, technology, everything’s changing. Algorithms. Everything’s making the future look pretty wonderful, and knowing that students will have different tools that are available to them for their futures. I’m curious about you, Heidy?
[Video cuts to Heidy.]
>> Heidy: My accommodations have also changed with time. What I’ve discovered works best for me and also depending on the technology that I’m using. I used hearing aids before, and now I have a cochlear implant. With the cochlear implant, it streams into my iPhone so I can take calls and they go directly into the cochlear implant. It helps me hear better. Of course, I don’t capture everything so the accommodation that I always ask for is CART. I do like to have real time captioning - to read what I’m missing out on. With my current job, I have been exposed and now very familiar with ASL. And though I am not fluent, but when there are ASL interpreters available, I’m also watching them and kind of picking up, because the visual communication helps a lot. When I’m communicating with friends that have no knowledge whatsoever about what is deaf and hard of hearing and how to communicate, I just tell them that we need to be in a place where it’s not too loud, to look me in the face so I can read their lips, and just to repeat whenever I miss something.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Definitely. Those self advocacy skills are so important to use accommodations to alter the environment. Thank you so much for sharing. And next, Cheryl.
[Video cuts to Cheryl.]
>> Cheryl: This is probably one of the bad things that I kind of did when I was in high school, I know I have the interpreter but I’ve always kind of like, look away from her, and it’s like I don’t need any help. I don’t need any help, you know? I’m looking at the teachers and stuff. I feel really bad now because they really did help. The interpreters are there to help you, so you don’t miss out on anything. Sometimes I can kind of choose my world. Be in the deaf world, just sign all the time. Or in a hearing world. I’ve been in both of them, and I still am, because my family is hearing - I have a deaf brother, sister-in-law, and two deaf kids, and so I’m always signing and interpreting, which I don’t mind. But at the same time, it’s nice to encourage my family to sign also, which they do. But other than that, just be yourself. Back then also, I refused to pull my hair up because I didn’t want to show my hearing aid. My deaf brother and I - we were out in public - we would sign under the table. We didn’t want anybody watching. But now, today, be yourself. More and more people are being more aware of the deaf and hard of hearing people in the community, and so just be yourself. Be assertive. Do what’s best for you. Ask for resources. There are many, many resources here in Minnesota. Many. Just ask for help. Ask for help.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: That’s good. So we’ve been hearing some wonderful things and hopefully providing some resources and support but I’d like to make sure that we don’t miss out on anything - so I’d like to have each member of the panel share some creative ideas to creative solutions for providing accommodations for yourselves. And I want the students to be thinking about their experiences as well and share that - are there any solutions that you’d offer?
[Video cuts to Trish.]
>> Trish: So something that I was worried about when I was going into my career and something that kind of changed my path - so one of the things that I was considering was being a teacher or when I was thinking about training tutors was that I was worried about turning my back when I had to lead discussions or lead training because I - when I turn my back, I can’t hear people. But what I was able to do is train some lead tutors so they could write things up on the board so that we could lead discussions and be able to gain some of that perspective and gain the really necessary parts of training… so really what I’m saying here is don’t let those things that maybe you are worried about hold you back - give the best of you because you can be creative with the way that you go about doing things like - I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to lead a training because I wouldn’t be able to do really important parts of the training like leading a discussion and writing things on board because I can’t turn around to write things on a board if people are going to talk to me but I figured out a workaround to do that so figure out the workarounds that are necessary. Figure out accommodations because they work. They might not be the traditional way, but you can figure it out. And we all have our own journeys. So just figure out your own.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Wonderful advice! I always think it’s important to know yourself and knowing students as they develop during their high school time, those teenage years - those years are tough, especially that self-consciousness students have. I’ve always told the students that over time; it will be fine. I think the benefit that we have today such as social media is that students can see the #CanDoAnything stories and be able to see other deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind people and feel more empowered themselves. And to see interpreters on TV,, to see captioning made available in all kinds of places, is truly amazing. There are just so many benefits today. Apps on smartphones, and all that. It’s just amazing. The world is different than what it used to be. We appreciate your stories. Are there any other additional thoughts, tips, or advice that you’d like to share? Anyone?
[Video cuts to Cheryl.]
>> Cheryl: Don’t you change - you know - you have hearing loss - it’s okay. There are others out there - lots of resources. Then again, there’s a lot of resources out there. Back then I was ashamed, but then when I went into college, I found out a lot more information and resources and - yeah, don’t be ashamed. I mean, be proud of who you are. Be proud of who you are.
[Video cuts to Trish.]
>> Trish: I can agree with that. I had a very similar experience throughout my childhood - kind of having the feeling of not really belonging in either world, or not really - I wasn’t deaf but I also wasn’t hearing. So, I didn’t feel like I fit in either way. Both of my parents were hearing so they didn’t really understand, and so I felt like I had to shun one of the worlds and the world I chose to shun was the deaf community, which wasn’t fair, and wasn’t good, and it made it so that I lost out on a lot of opportunities that really would have helped me. So, my advice for people going into college, going into the workforce, going into their careers is really, be vulnerable and allow yourself to experience the things that you need to experience. I work with students every single day of my work life and I recognize how hard it is to ask for help because of a lot of different reasons. It can be hard to ask for help because you don’t want to be a burden. You don’t know if asking for help is actually going to get you anywhere. You don’t know who to ask for help, but asking for help is one of the bravest things that you can actually do. So just taking that first step and just talking to somebody who you think might have an answer and then they can point you in the right direction, is the best thing that you really can do. So just figuring out who is the best person to go to and go to them and figure it out is really, really good.
[Video cuts to Heidy.]
>> Heidy: I agree with Trish and Cheryl. And in my experience, I had a lot of people throughout my life when I was about to start a job that would say, well, how are you even going to do that? How are you going to be a teacher? How are you going to do this? And I just pushed through. So, if you have a passion for something, if you have a goal, just go through it. Find the resources that are available for you. There are a lot of tools that you can use, just to achieve your goals. So just push through to achieve your passion.
[Video cuts to Elise.]
>> Elise: Hopefully these students who have been watching this will remember your words as they go through their journeys. Maybe not be today, but somewhere down the path in the future. In wrapping up our panel, I’d like to thank the panelists for coming in today, for sharing your stories, and for being vulnerable also, to put them out there. I would like to briefly mention that DEED, the Department of Employment and Economic Development, Vocational Rehabilitation Services, abbreviated to VRS, provides support to students who apply for services. We provide support for counseling guidance on career options. We can help with research work experiences, short and long term. We can refer to other specialists who can provide you resources to help with your journeys. We have staff available, we can share and provide resources to other agencies too. For example, the Commission partners with DEED VRS. The website link will be shared at the end of this video. There is an exhaustive list of resources there - they are wonderful for you to have. So, check them out. Thank you for watching and I hope it helps you find something new today. Bye-bye.
[Video transitions to a white slide with dark text showing a list of resources. New slide shows additional text: “The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Vocational Rehabilitation Services thank Panelists: Trish Allen, Heidy Nazario, and Cheryl Anderson; Interpreters: Patty Gordon. ASL talent: Diego Ozuma-Clark and Nic Zapko; Keystone interpreting Solutions for video production.” The KIS logo is on the bottom right corner.]
All participants approved their content before release.
