Interview with Congressman Morelle about Super Bowl ASL access

Video description: There are three people in a Zoom-style video call: Alex Abenchuchan, Congressman Joe Morelle, and a Convo Now interpreter.

Alex (The Daily Moth): Thank you for your time.So I just wanted to talk about the ASL accessibility during the Super Bowl. I read through your open letter from February 12th that called out the NFL and CBS for not showing the ASL on their broadcast.So can you go ahead and explain to me how you became aware about that issue?

Congressman Joe Morelle (D-NY): Well, honestly, I think if you represent Rochester, New York, you have a great sensitivity to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. We are incredibly proud that NTID, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf is in Rochester, part of RIT. We just celebrated a significant anniversary of the founding of NTID just a couple of years ago.

So we have enormous sensitivity around Deaf and Hard of Hearing issues in Rochester. We're incredibly proud of Daniel Durant who started in the movie "CODA" and was going to sing.

So while I'm a huge football fan and would normally be watching the Super Bowl anyway, I paid particular interest because I was excited to see the signing of the national anthem by Daniel Durant. And we were very, very excited. And so I was sitting at dinner and they introduced him as they were preparing to have the national anthem performed. And I felt the NFL and CBS made a big show of the fact that Daniel Durant was going to be performing the national anthem in ASL.

While they were playing the national anthem,I kept waiting to see Daniel signing the national anthem. And as they're playing it, I kept looking and looking and at one point I turned to my wife And I said,I'm sorry, did I miss this? I didn't see him. And then they concluded it and I was pretty angry and I was pretty sure I had missed it. I was paying particular attention, but my wife said no, he was not there at all.

So I was pretty angry and I assume many people around the country shared my anger. And so I immediately said to my staff, to Dana and others, we have to write a letter to CBS and to the NFL. This was awful. They went out of their way almost to demonstrate their commitment to sensitivity around Deaf and Hard of Hearing community by announcing -- almost like they were patting themselves on the back for doing it.

But I think, pardon the reference, but I think they fumbled here pretty dramatically. And I want to make sure that they don't fumble in the future.

I think they should issue an apology, which as far as I know we have not, they certainly haven't responded to my letter, but this was a major misstep and a moment where they could demonstrate indeed in an action, their commitment to diversity and their commitment to the sensitivity to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. Just as I said, they fumbled badly.

Alex: Yeah, I mean, I was really thrilled that you noticed for the Deaf community, this is not something that's new. It's been an ongoing issue every year. It's just so repetitive again and again.

Also, I think in recent years the NFL have partnered with NAD, the National Association for the Deaf to do a selection of ASL performers. However, they would provide a separate link online to be able to watch the ASL performers.

A lot of Deaf people feel that it's not an equivalent experience to have to then open up another link. So how do you think that we could make this happen to really put in a PIP or in a corner on the screen? How do you think this could happen?

Congressman Joe Morelle: Well, look, I would more rely on my friends in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community to suggest the kind of way to do this. But look, at the very least, they could have just done a split screen. We know how that technology has been developed for decades where you do a split screen and they often do split screens in these broadcasts.

This would've been simple to do, and frankly, I remain not only angry, but I was shocked that it didn't happen as though this doesn't take any real creativity on their part. They could have easily done this.

And look, I think we all know that there is a big difference between captioning, which is very important, but captioning doesn't always get it right. And you had someone signing it for people to observe directly. So I would rely on people who know more about technology, but it seemed to me at the very least a split screen would've been a way to do it if they felt the need to cut to other images, which they did do throughout it.

The whole time the performer who was singing aloud, they switched back to different things. And if they want to do that, that is fine. But they should have kept a focus on at least half the screen on Daniel and what he was doing, because I think that was their way to demonstrate their sensitivity and their commitment to it.

And as I said, this was just in my mind almost worse than if they hadn't gone out of their way to introduce him and tell people that he was doing it. It's like they told them almost like that helped them, but it didn't help viewers at home who I'm sure would've loved to have seen him perform.

Alex: Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. I noticed that in the stadium, on the big screen, it does show in the little PIP for people who are in the audience and at the stadium but for people at home, we don't see anything. So we have to find the separate link that it's connected to.

Congressman Joe Morelle: Well, and sorry to interrupt, but to your point, the people in the stadium, let's say there were 60, 70,000 people at the stadium, which is a big number. There are tens of millions of people watching around the world. It's a global event. And I would feel better about this – look, people make mistakes and I appreciate that.

Early on in my career, we would need to be intentional. Think about it, we need interpreters at public events in Rochester because we have a significant Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. So let's be intentional. But I'm sure there's times when perhaps we made a mistake, you need to own it. And that's why I'm more disappointed perhaps now, is that it has been weeks since we wrote the letter to the commissioner of the NFL and the head of CBS. The thing for them to have done in my view, is to respond, to apologize, and to make a commitment to not have this repeated next year.

I think those are pretty simple steps, and I think people in the community would have appreciated at least their willingness to acknowledge that they made a mistake, they did make a mistake.

Let's not mince words. They made a big mistake here and really need to own it. I think they'd have the respect from people if they just acknowledged how much they just, I would say, screwed up. They screwed up.

Alex: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they didn't even do that at least. And it's more frustrating. So I really appreciate your empathy and how you're feeling. We really appreciate that.

Another issue is the NFL uses different broadcasters every year. So this year it was CBS. Before they used FOX, sometimes they used NBC, so it could be ABC, so for the Deaf community, sometimes it feels like, okay, now we have to start all over again and say, hey FOX, maybe next year, whoever it is, like, hey, we need interpreters. We need Deaf performers.

So is there some kind of federal rule that we could require all, like any Super Bowl or any big sporting events on the national level to just have it be a set standard?

Congressman Joe Morelle: Well, it certainly should be a standard, but here's what should happen. The NFL sells the rights to cover the game to the different networks that cover professional football. They ought to have a standard in their contract with whoever is given the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl. That ought to be standard language for the NFL.

And I would hope that in this dialogue, which we haven't had because they haven't responded, they should not only commit to it next year, they should commit to it as a standard operating procedure that whoever, doesn't matter if it's FOX, CBS, ABC, all of them should be required as a part of the contract between the NFL and the broadcaster to do this.

So we'll continue to push on this and we're going to continue to talk to them about it and make sure that they're really controlling the product. They should just simply do this. And again, I don't know what made this feel so lacking in authenticity and was so sort of it just made it feel not genuine. Is them going to great lengths to introduce the subject, to introduce Daniel Durant to say that he was going to be signing the national anthem. And then when the Star-Spangled Banner played without showing him, so I really was as angry about that.

Again, it's almost like they wanted to get credit for something and then didn't follow through when it actually was meaningful. So we're going to continue to persist and continue to try to make them aware and hopefully they will improve in the future, and hopefully they'll acknowledge that there was a serious shortcoming in this regard.

Alex: So what would be next if the NFL doesn't respond? And then what would be the next steps? Everyone in the Deaf community, many people are frustrated. There's no way to really see change, They don't see a way of that happening.

Congressman Joe Morelle: Well, we're going to persist. I think that there are moments when the NFL is in my office. They haven't been in since the Super Bowl, but they come in because there are certain things that they're interested in, certain things that we are interested in, safety issues at the football stadiums around making sure things, safety around drones. And so there's a number of things that they have appealed to us about. And as well, the broadcasters are typically visiting those of us on Capitol Hill to talk about the things that they need. So I've been waiting for the next meeting with the NFL and the broadcasters to raise the issue and tell them how very disappointed I am in what they did. Very disappointed that I have not received a response from them.

And then if we can't get anything further there, we'll continue to press the case with them. And I'm very hopeful. I'm still pretty optimistic

that they will recognize the error of their ways and make sure that next year when it comes to the Super Bowl or any other sporting event that they broadcast during that moment, that they make sure that they're really being sensitive to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. We'll be watching from Rochester. That I guarantee you.

Alex: Yeah, I mean, and I really appreciate your commitment and your allyship of what the Deaf community needs, and I really appreciate that. Thank you so much for your time, Congressman Morelle, Is there anything that you wanted to add? You can. That's all the questions that I had. Thank you.

Congressman Joe Morelle: No, I think what we've learned is how important this is, and we're continuing to try to build bridges for people of different abilities, those who communicate in their own unique way. We want to make sure that we're meeting people where they are, and this is vitally important. We're going to continue to promote that message and to be mindful of the fact that people need to do everything they can to be inclusive. And that's what we're about. So thanks so much for taking time and thanks for your interest in our work.

Alex: Thank you. Thank you.

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