Federal judge orders New York Gov. Cuomo to “immediately” provide in-frame ASL interpreters for daily briefings

This afternoon I was notified by Disability Rights New York (DRNY) that they were successful in their lawsuit against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) for failing to provide in-frame ASL interpreters.  

Today Judge Valerie E. Caproni of the Southern District of New York (federal court) ordered Gov. Cuomo to “immediately implement in-frame ASL interpretation during his daily press briefings.” It means we can expect to see an ASL interpreter present in-frame starting tomorrow. 

DRNY filed a lawsuit on April 29. Gov. Cuomo is the only governor in the nation to not provide in-frame ASL interpreters. His office has directed deaf and hard of hearing people to a separate, external website on the governor’s website that provides real-time ASL interpretation using a Certified Deaf Interpreter, Arkady Belozovsky, but the interpretation is not visible on television screens across the New York state or to national news channels who broadcast it.  

On May 5, the parties had oral arguments via telephone. Gov. Cuomo’s office said they have provided effective communication because they have closed captioning and an ASL stream and that deaf individuals made a choice to not take advantage of those services.  

DRNY was allowed to supplement their arguments in a written brief that was submitted on Thursday. DRNY said deaf individuals were not provided with “meaningful access” because some are only able to view the governor’s briefings on television as they do not have a computer or a tablet in which they can view the external ASL stream. They argued that it was not equivalent.  

DRNY said they have suggested a simple, inexpensive, and an easily-implemented solution (providing in frame ASL interpreters). 

[Sponsored Video from Convo: https://bit.ly/2RyMogR ] 

The DRNY has encouraged the court to create a precedent on the matter of in-frame interpreters so there can be a clear statement on the law. This was last week. There was a settlement conference scheduled on May 19, but the DRNY requested for the court to act immediately. 

Well, now, the judge has made a decision to grant DRNY’s motion for a preliminary injunction by ordering Gov. Cuomo to provide in-frame ASL interpretation for his daily press briefings.  

I will be watching Gov. Cuomo’s press briefing tomorrow to see what changes are implemented. Will the external interpreter be included in-frame? We’ll see. 

On a separate but related matter, the World Federation of the Deaf published guidelines on March 18 that said “An interpreter should be physically present and visible on camera alongside whomever is speaking.” For interpreters who are in a studio and placed on the television broadcast, the WFD recommends that at least 25% of the screen be dedicated to the interpreter.

http://wfdeaf.org/news/resources/18-march-2020-guidelines-on-providing-access-to-public-health-info-in-nat-sign-language-during-coronavirus-pandemic/