Not too long ago, President Donald J. Trump removed the accessibility from the white house’s website, which President Donald J. Trump’s administration manages. Doing this caused many Deaf people and as well disabled people, such as people who are blind, to feel oppressed by their own President, which in this case is President Donald J. Trump. Not only has President Trump removed the accessibility from his white house’s website, but there is something big amiss that many of us have noticed, especially those who are in the Deaf community and that is not getting any information of any kind from President Trump or his press secretary with American Sign Language interpreter which is unacceptable. When it comes to Donald Trump, this didn’t happen the first time because it happened during his first term as the United States President until we, along with the National Association of the Deaf, filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s administration for not providing us Deaf people the accessibility to any information that President Trump, his team, his press, and his administration delivers. This is a repeat, as it’s happening in his second term. Any time that President Trump’s administration shares information of any kind, they mustn’t be only accessible to hearing people with audio but also that they are accessible to Deaf people with American Sign Language interpreters.
Any time the United States of America president makes a speech, especially at a large event or when it comes from the press, it should be delivered to everyone. This includes making sure that it is accessible to the Deaf community in their native language, American Sign Language, just as it provides audio to hearing people and transcription for blind people.
The President of the United States of America, regardless of who holds that position, should serve all Americans, including the Deaf and disabled. To do so, the President needs to ensure that any information coming from the administration or the president is accessible to all rather than limiting it to audio, which is only for the people who can hear. Unfortunately, in his second term, the current President of the United States, Donald Trump, refuses to do so. He also removed the accessibility section/page on his white house website, which is very important. As I said, this was not the first time because during President Trump’s first term, we were in a big crisis, such as COVID, which hit us hard. All of the information that comes from President Trump and his administration was only limited to audio, so over 11 million Deaf Americans were left out by not getting any critical information about COVID and how can we do to prevent ourselves from getting them or so that we can be more prepared in time before COVID takes over the country such as letting us know to wash our hands, stay six feet away from people, wear a mask, and get vaccine or whatever. Until the National Association of the Deaf, with others, filed a lawsuit against his administration for failing to do so during his first term with the information on COVID, President Trump stubbornly refused to make sure that all of the information was accessible to us Deaf people by providing American Sign Language interpreters on the TV until the court ordered President Trump that he and his administration must provide American Sign Language interpreters on TV whenever there is information about COVID-19.
Here are the sources about the lawsuit by the National Association of the Deaf, the Deaf People, and the court ordering the Trump administration to provide live ASL interpreters for Trump’s COVID-19 briefings.
- Deaf Americans are urging the White House to use sign language interpreters at coronavirus briefings by Jessica Campisi at CNN.
- Deaf association sues to force White House to use sign language interpreters at coronavirus briefings by Katelyn Polantz at CNN.
- Judge orders White House to provide sign language interpreters at Covid briefings by Nicole Via y Rada at NBC News.
Then, President Trump lost the election to Joe Biden; on the first day of his presidency, he made sure that they were fully accessible to everyone, including ensuring that there would be American Sign Language interpreters on TV. Also, with Joe Biden as President, he even expended that by providing American Sign Language to interpret everything, including the press, his State of the Union speeches, some events that he or Vice President Kamala Harris attended, and whatnot. During Joe Biden’s administration, we had total accessibility, and that was the first time in history that a United States President made sure that the Deaf community had total access to any information that came from the white house, the press, the speeches by President Biden, and more. Suppose you say that it was President Trump who made that history. In that case, you are wrong because, to be honest, it was President Trump who provided American Sign Language interpreters ONLY for information on COVID-19, but not every one of them until the court ordered his administration to start doing so thanks to that lawsuit from the National Association of the Deaf. Nobody had to file a lawsuit, write a letter, or anything to President Joe Biden because his administration made sure of it from the beginning of his campaign to the first day of his presidency and his last day as president as he had the American Sign Language interpreter interpreting President Joe Biden’s farewell speech.
Now, Donald Trump is President again, and there is no accessibility whatsoever. So, it’s a repeat, and now, with that, we are back to square one. During Joe Biden’s presidency, they built the foundation for providing accessibility to the Deaf community, such as what to do, how to do, and whatnot. It’s a guideline for future presidents, so they know how to continue providing us with Deaf community accessibility. All they would have to do is pick it up and continue it since it was set up and ready for President Trump’s administration to continue. It is apparent that President Trump’s administration didn’t use it to make sure that we Deaf Americans continue getting information from our president, his administration, and his press at the events he goes to. I am sure that when President Trump has his State of the Union, there will not be any access such as making sure that there are American Sign Language interpreters for the Deaf community to hear his speech at his State of the Union and as well anything that comes from President Trump during his administration. It’s frustrating and unfair to us that our president is doing this by removing the accessibility and refusing to provide American Sign Language interpreters on TV or even at his rallies. Speaking of the rallies, I bet that you weren’t aware that during Joe Biden’s campaign for the presidency, AND again during Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency, they had American Sign Language interpreters all the way so that any Deaf people that went to their rally to hear them but during Donald Trump’s campaign here was zero. You can find evidence of that by looking at both Joe Biden’s campaign funding and Kamala Harris’s campaign funding because they have to show all of the payments they made during their campaign, which showed that they were paying American Sign Language interpreters. In contrast, in President Trump’s campaign, it showed none.
So, that said, it showed that President Trump does not think or care to ensure that the Deaf community isn’t left behind or that they have access to any information released by him or his administration, such as his press briefings. The National Association of the Deaf’s interim CEO, Bobbie Beth Scoggins, released a letter to the White House, occupied by President Trump, about accessibility that President Trump removed. The letter was sent to President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susan Wiles, to urge President Trump’s white house to reinstate American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation services for their press briefings. You can read the letter by the National Association of the Deaf to President Trump’s white house below.
You can also read this letter on the National Association of the Deaf’s website: NAD CEO Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins – Letter to White House About Accessibility.
As Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins said, access to President Trump’s or any future President’s press briefings is critical for all of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans. Like I always said, if there is audio, then they should provide sign language interpreters to interpret whatever is being said in the audio, and if they do not want to provide the sign language interpreters to interpret whatever is being said in their audio, then don’t provide the audio to be fair to everyone. It is that simple. No, closed captions aren’t enough, which many people don’t understand that it is not because closed captions use spoken/written language such as English, which not many Deaf people can understand because it isn’t their first/native language. Their first language is American Sign Language, and even though they use English words, they have different grammar. Yes, I am a Deaf person, and I can write decent grammar, but that does not mean every Deaf person can. I am in that tiny group of the Deaf community that can write decent grammar while the majority of the Deaf community cannot understand them. It is documented that the Deaf people’s writing and reading grade level is 3rd grade. You can thank the poor education here in the United States for that; Republicans primarily set that low standard. If you wonder what we can do to improve that, I would say implement the Deaf education Bilingual-Bicultural (Bi-Bi) program in Deaf institutions, public schools, private schools, colleges, universities, etc., to start with and go from there. If you want to know more about bilingual-bicultural education, here’s the link on Wikipedia. https://w.wiki/CxgX. Not only that, but the closed captions aren’t accurate at all times. They often lag so in a way that the hearing people get information before we Deaf people can, which is unfair. This is another reason we need a sign language interpreter; they don’t delay or lag since the interpreter would be there in person at the same time as Trump speaks, or someone from his administration, press briefings, and whatnot. You know, from time to time, you might see something happening on TV, and something had happened, but the audio didn’t catch up until a few seconds later, so that makes you confused – that’s how we look at closed captions. That’s why we need ASL interpreters; they can keep up with the audio, unlike closed captions, from time to time.
Back to the topic, as I said, President Trump does not care about making sure there is accessibility not only for the Deaf people but also for the disabled people, including blind people. He clearly showed a long way before he even thought about running for the presidency, as he made sure that his hotels did not have disabled residents and workers. He is well-known for oppressing minority communities, such as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color), the Deaf community, the disabled community, the blind community, and others. He only cares about the fact that they are white men who are non-disabled and that they are superior to the people who are part of minority communities. Especially if they are wealthy, why do you think that with President Trump back in the white house, there is an oligarchy in his team, such as Elon Musk? Speaking of Elon Musk, when he acquired Twitter, the first thing he did was abolish Twitter’s accessibility team. It seems that the rich people are out to remove accessibility and refusing to follow the Americans with Disability Act, which requires that there would be accessibility for the Deaf and disabled people. President Trump is a billionaire, a wealthy white man, and he always refuses to accommodate the Deaf and disabled people. Just recently, President Trump signed an executive order to eliminate Higher Education Accessibility Initiatives, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI or DEIA for accessibility) is one good example that President Trump does not care about the disabled community, including the Deaf people. The pattern is there, and that pattern has been around for decades. I sure don’t get why some of the disabled community, including the Deaf people, would vote for a president who is known for oppressing us for decades.
Will that letter written by the National Association of the Deaf make any difference? Unfortunately, it would not, which is the same for me or others. That letter published by the National Association of the Deaf is too soft, especially a letter to a President who is known as a bully and oppressor, so the National Association of the Deaf should’ve been stark in that letter for President Trump. Let him, his administration, and the white house know that the National Association of the Deaf means that they need (without asking) to provide American Sign Language interpreters so that the Deaf community can understand what is being said by President Trump, his administration, his press briefings, his speeches at some places/events and whatnot. If they refuse, let them know that the National Association of the Deaf will use the legal means to have them provide an American Sign Language interpreter again. We can do everything to advocate for the White House to start providing American Sign Language interpreters to interpret for whoever is President of the United States. Still, with Donald Trump as the current President, I doubt he will do anything because he never wanted to provide one long before his first term, which is no different from his second term.
If you want to change that, I suggest we start with our representatives and senators to have them make a law or add an amendment to force the United States President to provide an American Sign Language interpreter for his speech, press briefings, and whatnot. There was no need to do so with former President Joe Biden because he recognized the importance of making sure that the Deaf Americans get information from his speech, his press briefings, and whatnot in American Sign Language, which is a language for the Deaf community. Former President Joe Biden made a policy to ensure that there is an American Sign Language interpreter and accessibility. It is one of the things that we should thank former President Joe Biden for. All President Trump would have to do was continue with the example made by former President Joe Biden. Keep that policy rather than throw it away. The foundation on how to do so is there, so all President Trump would have to do is pick up from that and continue, but unfortunately, he didn’t; not only that, he even went further by removing the entire accessibility. The bottom line is that no matter what, if you are a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent and you ask them to provide an American Sign Language interpreter, President Trump will not listen to you about that. You can beg or ask; they will go unnoticed. So, the best thing that you can do is, like I said, start with your representatives and senators because they can do something about it. Maybe send a letter or a message or call the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) demanding that they provide an American Sign Language interpreter. Still, I doubt that will do you any good if you would like to contact the FCC to file a complaint about them not providing an ASL interpreter on TV whenever it shows Trump making a speech or his press briefings and whatnot.
dro@fcc.gov, or call 202-418-2517 (voice), or 1-844-432-2275 (videophone).
If you want to contact your representatives and/or senators, you can do that by going to the link below, finding your representatives and senators, and then from there, they will show you their contact information so that you can contact them to let them know that President Trump needs to provide an ASL interpreter.
https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member
You can type your home address or use the “use current location” option at home. That will automatically show you who they are and their contact information. When you do, a map will show you where you are located. If it shows wrong, be sure to press the pin on the location that you are at.
Okay, that’s the end. I am sure that this article is a bit long. Still, I had a lot of thoughts about it. I wanted to share them while at the same time writing about President Trump’s removal of accessibility, which impacts the disability community, including the deaf community. Please feel free to comment below if you’d like to share your thoughts about this subject. I would love to hear them. If you have a news media website or a blog, you can add this article as your trackback, and that will be shown in the comments section below, where the readers can click to read your thoughts on your website. If you have a vlog on your social media, such as YouTube, please copy and paste the link below in the comments section! I hope every one of you has a great day or night, whichever it is over there!
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
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