Judge: Trump Administration Must Have ASL Interpreter at COVID-19 Briefings

A key group of citizens have been left out of consideration during President Donald J. Trump’s televised coronavirus pandemic briefings – the deaf – and a federal judge is poised to change that by requiring the administration to include an American Sign Language interpreter in future broadcasts.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg granted temporary relief last week to the National Association of the Deaf and five deaf citizens who are seeking to force the White House to stop holding broadcast briefings on the public health crisis without an ASL interpreter. The association filed a lawsuit against Trump and his administration in federal court in Washington D.C. on Aug. 3 in an effort to get the president to address the needs of deaf citizens who rely on sign language.

Judge Boasberg also indicated the administration’s actions violated the U.S. Rehabilitation Act. A hearing is scheduled to take place with Judge Boasberg on Thursday to hash out the logistics of how the White House will comply with the judge’s orders to best serve the deaf population.

“For updates about the pandemic, these people have tried to tune in to briefings by President Donald Trump and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force,” Judge Boasberg wrote in his Sept. 9 opinion. “But their ability to understand the information presented has often been stymied by the briefings’ lack of an ASL interpreter.”

The plaintiffs “met their burden” in arguing that the White House must provide some accommodation for the deaf in the task force and presidential briefings on the pandemic, the judge said. If not, “there is little debate” those citizens would suffer irreparable harm.

What remains to be determined is the best way to do that. Advocates for the deaf are trying to get the Trump administration to follow the example of the governors of all 50 states, who include ASL interpreters in their public briefings on the pandemic, CNN reported.

Broadcast updates on the federal and state response to the crisis, and the progression of the spread of the COVID-19 virus, have become common since the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S. in March.

Lawyers for the association of the deaf argue that Trump and his administration have been violating the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 since March by “failing to ensure full accessibility” to the deaf and hard of hearing. Administration officials say the White House Press Office provides live closed captioning of the briefings. The plaintiffs and Judge Boasberg say that’s not enough.

“Closed captioning and transcripts may constitute a reasonable accommodation under some circumstances, but not here,” Boasberg wrote in his ruling last week. Those measures do not offer “meaningful access” under the circumstances, the judge found.

Instead, the administration must find a way to provide in-frame ASL interpreters during the coronavirus briefings.

Also named as defendants in the National Association of the Deaf’s lawsuit against Trump are Vice President Mike Pence and White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. The other named plaintiffs are Carlton Strail, Graham Forsey, Debra Fleetwood, John Rivera Jr. and Corey Axelrod – all of whom are deaf.

According to the lawsuit, numerous organizations and 34 senators have joined the National Association for the Deaf in asking the White House to provide an ASL interpreter during its coronavirus pandemic briefings. The group even sent a letter to Pence, who is chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, on March 12 asking for the interpreter but the plaintiffs say “the White House has ignored these requests.”

The National Association of the Deaf says it received hundreds of complaints from hard-of-hearing and deaf residents who aren’t getting the vital information they need from the federal government’s broadcasts about the outbreak.

Are you reliant on American Sign Language and unable to understand what is being said during the Trump administration’s televised public briefings on the coronavirus pandemic? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

The National Association of the Deaf and plaintiffs are represented by Ian S. Hoffman of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP of Washington, DC and Marc Charmatz of National Association of the Deaf Law and Advocacy Center, Silver Spring, MD.

The Trump ASL Interpreter Lawsuit is National Association of the Deaf, et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02107-JEB, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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