White House Claims ASL Interpreters would ‘intrude’ on the president’s public image
Meg Kinnard reported last week for The AP the White House argues that using ASL interpreters during press briefings “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public.” The Trump administration made said claim in response to a lawsuit seeking to compel them to provide interpreters. Attorneys for the Justice Department added President Trump has “the prerogative to shape his Administration’s image and messaging as he sees fit.”
“Department of Justice attorneys haven’t elaborated on how doing so might hamper the portrayal President Donald Trump seeks to present to the public,” Kinnard wrote on Friday. “But overturning policies encompassing diversity, equity and inclusion have become a hallmark of his second administration, starting with his very first week back in the White House.”
Kinnard continued: “Government attorneys also argued that it provides the hard of hearing or Deaf community with other ways to access the president’s statements, like online transcripts of events, or closed captioning. The administration has also argued that it would be difficult to wrangle such services in the event that Trump spontaneously took questions from the press, rather than at a formal briefing.”
I first covered this story back in July, the editorializing from which bears repeating here. Like the State Department’s decision to go back to Times New Roman from Calibri in correspondence, the White House’s proclivity to poo-poo the need for sign language interpretation—a defense that much more laughable because Gallaudet University is virtually down the street—is yet another example of the Trump administration’s extinguishing of any and all diversity and inclusion initiatives. It’s being made abundantly clear the powers-that-be, starting with Trump himself, wants America to be White, wealthy, male, and able-bodied. But such rationale is par for the course—not just at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but for society as a whole. The disability community, yours truly included, is always cast away to the margin’s margin, even amongst DEI supporters, because society has internalized that having disabilities is bad and a sign of a “broken” human condition. Down to brass tacks, that’s why accessibility exists: to accommodate traversing a world unbuilt for people like me. Likewise, it’s why disability inclusion is so miserably behind other areas of social justice reporting in journalism; it’s oftentimes seen as too esoteric or niche to devote meaningful resources towards. All things considered, that’s why I always say doing this work and amplifying awareness is a task of Sisyphean proportions most days. We use technology as much as anyone else. We read the news like anyone else. We’re Americans like anyone else in this country… but somehow are thought as something less than the human beings we obviously are.
