Together, let's break down barriers to linguistic access and empower the deaf and hard of hearing community to actively participate in government and politics!

By demanding American Sign Language (ASL) translations for political and government materials, we can ensure that:

• Over 1 million Americans who rely on ASL as their primary means of communication (source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders) can engage in our democracy.
• The deaf and hard of hearing community can fully understand voter pamphlets and vote in their interests.
• Our democracy becomes more inclusive, fostering a stronger sense of belonging and civic engagement.

Sign this petition to request that the Secretary of State include ASL as a translation option for future voter pamphlets. Let's create a more accessible and equitable political landscape for all!

Update May 24, 2024

Someone commented in response to my petition with the following, "I don't understand. Voter pamphlets are printed and can be read." The following was my reply.

Providing translations in ASL for government and political materials would allow for improved participation by the deaf community in American politics. So far the Secretary of State has provisioned translations for: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Marshallese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. It's about time we had a seat at the table with a translation.

Language development and therefore education is often bungled for deaf and hard of hearing children. Spoken english is a huge waste of time, energy and educational development for the profoundly deaf. The result is some reject English and hearing people as an oppressive regime based on their experience. It is important to provide a balanced upbringing with some exposure to the deaf or hoh heritage sign language and culture. It's also important that the people around them parents, family, class and work mates also learn some sign language and learn the basics about deaf culture, otherwise the tax of crossing the linguistic and cultural bridge is often too high for it to be worth crossing regularly.

American sign language is based on old french sign language, the grammar is very different to English. The word order of English often feels backwards to someone who is accustomed to ASL or French. Reading and writing in English is an uncomfortable language for the deaf who are immersed in the ASL using community and who do not cross the linguistic and cultural bridge into the hearing community much.

Providing translations in ASL is a linguistic and cultural gesture. That is to say, "we recognize you as a valid linguistic and cultural community." Since the Milan conference in 1880, our community has had to fight just to exist and survive. I'm not content to just survive. We have a right to thrive like the American citizens we are. Why should we continue to tolerate subpar linguistic access? Provisioning an ASL translation of the voter's pamphlet going forward empowers our community to participate and better elect representatives that are in alignment with our values and interests.

Update Sept 6, 2024

A thank you going out to Disability Rights Oregon for making an ASL edition of the Easy Voter Guide available for General Elections which occurs once every 4 years to elect the President and Vice President, this happens to be a General Election year with voting to take place this November. Guides will become available in October. This is great, however there are still a number of other elections that are not translated into ASL that would be helpful. This campaign for inclusivity for deaf Oregonians in the voting process continues.