Stacey Abrams campaign has two deaf staffers and two ASL interpreters
Stacey Abrams is a Democrat running for governor of Georgia and her campaign has hired two full-time deaf staffers and two full-time interpreters. This is unprecedented for a major political campaign because as far as I know, no other major political campaign has had four staffers dedicated to reaching out to the deaf and ASL community. I’ve never seen that before.
Here is an interview with two staffers, Benjamin Magee and DeMarco Pittman.
DeMarco Pittman: Hello, my name is DeMarco Pittman. I use he, him, and his pronouns. I work as a digital organizer.
Benjamin Magee: My name is Ben Magee. I work as a financial assistant/data coordinator.
Alex: I asked them to describe what their day-to-day duties looked like and to share any highlights.
Magee: My team is responsible for reaching out to various people who want to make a financial donation in the state and also out of state. Dom focuses on those in the state and another person focuses on those out of state. My job has to do with numbers. When the money arrives, I look at how much was donated and we put down the names and addresses in a database. I’m focused on that database.
Pittman: I’m a digital organizer. I’m responsible for social media, texting your friends, and pulling in people. I work six days and I take ownership of it. One highlight was when I gave a presentation on a Monday night for the disability community. I actually presented in sign language with an interpreter with staff and an audience filled with volunteers. It was easily over 119 volunteers that came in on a Zoom meeting. I was very thrilled. Being a digital organizer means I pull in people to make progress. It’s exciting to see the number of volunteers grow, and to be a part of this!
Alex: Stacey Abrams ran for governor in 2018 and during that campaign, she engaged with members of the Deaf community and hosted a question-and-answer session.
Dom Kelly, who is a hearing and disabled person and the senior adviser on disability engagement and accessibility for the Stacey Abrams campaign, explained in an interview that the Abrams campaign never stopped cultivating its relationship with the deaf community since 2018. Interpreting for him is Hijrah Hamid, one of the two full-time ASL interpreters for the campaign.
Dom Kelly, interpreted by Hijrah Hamid: We were able to make the case that we needed to invest in this because it was really important. No campaign has invested (in deaf people) on this level before. Often you will see a sign language interpreter that was added at the last minute or after a delay. But we were involved (interpreters) from the beginning stages. When we go out and meet various Georgians, they know that we’ll have interpreters ready and provided by our Stacey Abrams campaign staff. When we set up events or when we explain our policy, we can show that we actually believe in it, we actually invest in this…
Alex: Kelly pointed out that the campaign involves deaf issues in its policy platform. On the Abrams campaign website, under the “Disability Rights” category, it lists a major goal to “fulfill the promises of the ADA.” It lists several general goals for all disabled people, but there’s one section under “accessibility” that lists a goal to provide “guaranteed ASL interpretation” for all communications from the Georgia government.
[Full-screen image showing text that reads, “Advance communication access from the executive branch, all state agencies and in emergency communications for those who are Deaf and hard of hearing, blind and low vision, deafblind, and people with IDD through guaranteed ASL interpretation, CART, image descriptions, and plain language translations.”]
The Abrams platform also says it wants to establish a “Governor’s Advisory Council on Disability Affairs.” It is very likely that representatives from the deaf community would be on this council.
Abrams tweeted a month ago that she hosted a meet and greet with people in the Deaf community in Cave Spring, Georgia — where the Georgia School for the Deaf is. Here is a clip from Abrams’ Twitter account.
Credit: Twitter/@StaceyAbrams
[Video clip showing Stacey Abrams visiting a group of deaf people at a church in Cave Spring. The video is narrated by multiple deaf people and is edited to also show the gathering of deaf people]
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[Sponsored video from Convo: www.convorelay.com]
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Alex: I asked the two deaf staffers to share what they believe the impact would be if Abrams won her campaign for governor.
Magee: She is aware of our needs. She walks the talk. She made sure of it. Some others say things like, “I will support you, I will help you” but they don’t really help deaf people. We want to see action such as what she’s doing right now, hiring two ASL interpreters, and hiring me and DeMarco. She really means it. Stacey Abrams really does mean business. She sees the value in the disability community. She does not neglect them. She sees the value. That’s exciting and something that we can feel confident in, that she will support us.
Pittman: We are really looking forward to her becoming the first Black female, the first Black female governor in Georgia and in the U.S. I look at her as someone who really walks and knows Georgians’ lives. She knows what is going on and has the data to back it up. She values disabled people. She doesn’t just talk. She’s got a lot of paperwork on issues and what her approach would be. She will solve all the problems out there and reduce that paperwork. She knows what is going on. It’s all in her personality and heart. She works very hard and has unfinished business. She’s rolled up her sleeves.
Alex: Thank you all for the interview. We can see that the Stacey Abrams campaign has set a new standard in what the Deaf community can expect from a major political candidate.
https://staceyabrams.com/policy/social-mobility/#disability-rights