White House to provide ASL interpreters for all press briefings

On Monday afternoon, the White House announced that they would provide ASL interpreters for all of its press briefings as a part of its commitment to accessibility and inclusion.

[Video clip: MS. PSAKI: Good afternoon. Happy Monday to everyone. A couple of announcements at the top: First, as a part of this administration’s accessibility and inclusion efforts, starting today, we will have an ASL — an American Sign Language — interpreter for our daily press briefings. Today’s interpreter, Heather, is joining us virtually. The President is committed to building an America that is more inclusive, more just, and more accessible for every American, including Americans with disabilities and their families. ]

It is a huge deal to see the new Biden administration show a commitment to providing an ASL interpreter for its press briefings. It seems like they will do daily press briefings during the weekdays, so if you add it up to the next four years, that’s easily over 1,500 hours of interpreting services.

It is also a very different approach to deaf Americans compared with the Trump administration, who tried to get a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from the National Association of the Deaf that demanded there be ASL interpreters for Covid-19 related briefings or announcements. The NAD ultimately won that lawsuit, and the Trump White House started providing interpreters after October 2020.

So now, the White House is providing interpreters for all press briefings, not just the ones related to the coronavirus. It is in line with the Biden team’s commitment to providing ASL interpreters, because I’ve observed them providing ASL interpreters and Deaf interpreters for months in 2020 in their campaign videos.

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However, there was controversy yesterday among the deaf community because the interpreter, who was named Heather by the Press Sec. Jen Psaki, was already well known on social media for interpreting for a right-wing page called “Right Side ASL” or “Hands of Liberty.” The pages would post viral videos with conservative voices and included QAnon or Pizzagate conspiracy theories. A woman resembling Heather was one of the main interpreters for the page. Here are some clips.

Deaf people on Twitter and Facebook questioned whether it was appropriate to have Heather interpret for the Biden administration.

It’s important to note that this interpreter has done work with the White House during the Trump administration after the NAD lawsuit, but it didn’t raise concerns since the content of “Right Side ASL” often aligned with former President Trump or his allies’ views.

Now that there is a transition to a new Biden administration, it was a surprise to many to see Heather be a holdover interpreter. That’s what caused the controversy.

There were some deaf people who said on social media that it shouldn’t matter what a certain interpreter’s political views were, as long as they did their jobs. Others replied that it was distracting or triggering because they associated Heather with right-wing videos.

There were also deaf people calling for a Certified Deaf Interpreter, and sure enough, today there was a Certified Deaf Interpreter for the press briefing.

I have reached out to the White House, the interpreter, to Right Side ASL, and several other people to try and understand the story better. I want to do a follow-up story. We’ll see what the White House plans to do with its interpreters going forward.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/01/25/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-january-25-2021/