Paulissa Kipp

About me

Paulissa Kipp, CPSWS is an artist, author, Certified Peer Specialist, Disability Rights advocate and Oracle of the Collective Fire.

Advocacy skills: accessibility advocacy, educating about ADA compliance in a technological society, public speaking, legislative testimony, connecting people with individuals and services to meet their needs, cross-disability lived experience and asking the hard questions that spur meaningful change.

When she’s not empowering to use their voice or drawing attention to issues related to human rights, she enjoys crocheting yip yips, gardening, reading, photography and shenanigans.

Advocacy and Activism:

I have often advocated for ASL, CART or closed captioning in a variety of settings and certainly with increased frequency since COVID moved so many things online. Online options created more accessibility for some but still has a ways to go at time to be accessible for the deaf and hard of hearing community. Yet the evolution of technology is creating more opportunities for our community to engage in society in meaningful and impactful ways. I’d like to learn together and increase the quality of life for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

I bring lived experience with being hard of hearing and living with mental health conditions. In my advocacy, I’ve advocated for assistive technology and closed captioning on my phone and that of my mother-in-law who is hard of hearing and living with dementia, testified to the legislature and Department of Justice regarding mental health services in Nebraska, engaged in advocating for elder justice and more. I recently finished 2 terms on the Disability Rights Nebraska Board of Directors and currently serve on Disability Rights Nebraska’s Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Mental Illness Advisory Council. My art has been featured by SAHMSA for Recovery Month’s Art of Recovery.

• Interests – public policy, chronic pain, architectural accessibility, technological accessibility, legislativie advocacy

• Priorities: Access to decision makers and representation in the decision making process

• Lived experience that would be helpful for others to know (as a professional, as a consumer, as a family member, as someone interested in issues around mental health, employee, etc.) My lived experience includes abuse, medical trauma and gaslighting, chronic pain and mental health conditions. As a consumer of mental health services and someone with many invisible illnesses, I advocate for accessibility in architecture and technology. I work to break down stigma and bias within the medical system and within the settings in which I serve.