The White House often gives briefings on the state of affairs in America that affect the American People. With a pandemic affecting each and every one of us and requiring each and every one of us to understand how to participate in public health safety using Measures to prevent the spread. Deaf Americans also need access to the state of affairs under government

We have closed captioning! Yes, that is geared for English users which may include those who lost their hearing due to age, those who are bilingual in English and another language, as well as Deaf bilinguals whose other language is ASL. 

So, then why do we need an ASL Interpreter? We need them for the ASL monolingual community and those who do not use English as their primary language for access. These interpreters are almost the ONLY means of access to the state of affairs in America. So it is vital that the interpreter is qualified to meet the wide range of language backgrounds. The only interpreter that can do so are linguistically and culturally native Deaf Interpreters.

The Deaf interpreter, with the Hearing interpreter, as a bilingual-bicultural team is able to provide the most inclusive form of interpretation for the American Deaf people. The President, the Biden Administration, and all other forms of Government deserve to feel confident that their message is far reaching as possible and is not discriminatory.

Yes, the act of using Hearing Interpreters WITHOUT a Deaf Interpreter is a form of discrimination. The very thing that President Biden condemns within his governance.

Hearing Interpreters have been educated to include the Deaf Interpreter in very specific instances and this is one of them- television and media is far reaching, we never know who is watching. Many are ASL monolinguals hoping to understand the pandemic and to learn about Biden's governance.

The RID-NAD Code of Professional Conduct is something many of us take seriously. It is concerning that HIs are not adhering to the CPC and enabling the act of discriminatory access that is not inclusive every time they do this job without a Deaf Interpreter. 

I ask for the White House to strive for non-discriminatory interpreting teams. The D/H Interpreting team is the most inclusive form of interpreting there is. Please stop hiring ONLY Hearing Interpreters that do not comply to President Biden's goals of anti-discrimination for the White House briefings. And begin to align with his goals by hiring D/H hearing teams.

Please hire a qualified ASL interpreter coordinator to handle all hires, screening, evaluations for the White House.

Thank you for your time.