Deaf Orgs Team Up For White House Briefings
Leading Deaf Organizations Step Up to Provide Live ASL Interpretation, Closed Captioning of White House Coronavirus Briefings
CSD has joined forces with three leading deaf organizations – DPAN.TV, Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) and CONVO — to help provide live American Sign Language interpretation and closed captioning of the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings.
“Nothing is more critical for our community to combat this global pandemic than breaking down all communications barriers and ensuring deaf individuals get equal access to important and reliable information in their own language,” said Chris Soukup, CEO of CSD. “We could wait no longer for others who are responsible to implement these rightful accommodations as we face this life-threatening crisis.”
Each of the four participating organizations is providing a key element of the live ASL interpretation of the White House briefings. CSD is providing Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services, known as real-time captioning; DPAN is providing the live streaming capabilities; and RID and CONVO are providing the ASL interpreters.
“CSD has long been committed to ensuring that critical public information be accessible to our community. We are very proud to join our fellow partners and help make this a reality for the protection and safety of our community,” said Rosa Lee Timm, Chief Marketing Officer of CSD. “Who, though, is responsible for providing equal access to major public announcements like this? The White House and our federal government are. This is exactly why we have the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is more than time our government stepped up.”
CSD, DPAN, RID and CONVO first started providing ASL livestreams of the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings on March 22. To access future Facebook Livestreams of White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings please visit DPANTV.