NAD asks Trump White House to bring back ASL interpreters

The National Association of the Deaf wrote an open letter to the White House asking them to reinstate ASL interpreters for their press briefings.

The letter is signed by NAD Interim CEO Bobbie Beth Scoggins. It recapped the NAD’s previous settlement with the President of the U.S. and other White House officials due to their failure to provide ASL interpreters during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NAD said in early 2021, the White House provided ASL interpreters for most of the top White House functions and social media accounts and employed a team of both hearing and Certified Deaf Interpreters. The White House established an “ASL Policy” and followed it for the last four years.

The NAD said it seems like the White House has ceased complying with the ASL Policy and is no longer providing ASL interpreters in recent press briefings.

The NAD said it strongly urges the White House to reinstate ASL interpretation services and said “captioning does not serve the needs of the large population of Deaf individuals whose first and dominant language is ASL…”

The NAD said if the White House needed any assistance in this process, they could contact the NAD’s Chief Operating Officer, Kelby Brick.

This letter does not have threats of legal action and it poses the NAD as taking a friendly but firm approach in asking the White House for ASL access and follow the Biden administration’s lead.

Will the Trump White House read this letter and honor that request? Only time will tell. I don’t have high hopes because the Trump administration has made a focused effort to dismantle DEIA (A for accessibility) programs within the federal government and the Trump administration initially refused to provide interpreters during the Covid-19 pandemic until they were sued and ordered to do so by a judge. We’re not in a Covid-19 emergency anymore, so the judge’s order doesn’t apply anymore, as far as I understand it, and we’re in new territory here because the Trump administration isn’t voluntarily providing interpreters like the Biden administration did.

You also have to take into account Elon Musk’s previous statements on why interpreters were necessary if there are already captions — remember his post on X a while back ago?

@elonmusk: “What’s the point of sign language in a video if you have subtitles? Am I missing something?” (Feb. 6, 2024)

He would probably think the same thing — that the White House doesn’t need to provide interpreters.

What do you think? Should the White House, regardless of who’s in the Oval Office, provide interpreters for Deaf Americans?

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