The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and five deaf Americans are suing the White House to provide President Donald Trump and other top officials to have American Sign Language interpreter at television broadcasts of their coronavirus press conferences and briefings.
The lawsuit suit argues that the briefings, which Trump has boasted got record ratings during the coronavirus pandemic, require translation to convey ‘tone and context’ of the messages from health professionals as well as the president.
Viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing need “access to critical, potentially life-saving information conveyed by our nation’s political and public health leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the suit by the NAD.
“Deaf and hard of hearing Americans deserve the same access to information from the White House and the President that everyone else gets,” said Howard A. Rosenblum, Chief Executive Officer of the NAD. “Such information must be provided not only through captioning but also in American Sign Language, especially for government announcements regarding health pandemics.”
The lawsuit alleges that the White House is in violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which mandates meaningful access for people with disabilities to all White House communications, particularly those regarding public health crises.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
