Minnesota's Deaf community has deep roots. At its first legislative session after statehood, a representative from Faribault proposed a school for deaf children. The Civil War delayed the plan, but the legislature authorized the school in the early eighteen-sixties, and it opened in rented rooms in Faribault that September. Its first superintendent came from the Ohio School for the Deaf. Now called the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf, it still operates in Faribault, preparing deaf and hard-of-hearing students from across the state to reach their fullest potential.
Residential schools like the academy have been central to Deaf culture across the country. For many Deaf children born to hearing parents, school was where they first met other Deaf people and gained full access to a language. Friendships, marriages, sports rivalries and community organizations often grew out of school ties, and ASL passed from one generation of students to the next. Schools for the deaf have also been sites of struggle, including long periods when many programs pushed spoken English and discouraged signing. Some Deaf Minnesotans carry mixed memories of their schooling, and staff should not ask about them unless the person raises it.
The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing is a state agency that advocates for communication access and equal opportunity for the twenty percent of Minnesotans who are deaf, DeafBlind or hard of hearing. It works on issues in education, employment, health care, civic engagement and communication access, and pursues a legislative agenda. It is an advocacy body, not a direct service provider.
Within DHS, Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing State Services works through regional offices around the state. It offers consultation and referral, the Minnesota Access to Communication Technology program for telephone equipment, programs for people with combined hearing and vision loss, and mental health therapy with ASL-fluent professionals. Through grants, it funds interpreter referral, mentoring, captioning and other services. For DHS staff, these offices are colleagues and resources. Before designing a program change, engagement effort or public message that affects Deaf, DeafBlind or hard-of-hearing Minnesotans, consult State Services and invite Deaf-led organizations to help shape it.
