US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff has been sent a letter urging the new administration to resume American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation of its press briefings, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has confirmed.
The NAD shared on Tuesday that its interim CEO, Dr Bobbie Beth Scoggins, emailed Susan Wiles about the issue on Friday – a day after the non-profit said in an online information session that it was in the process of drafting a letter to the White House about ASL access to its communications.
Separate correspondence, which Deaf community members can use to send their own messages to the White House, is still being developed.
Brittany Shrader, the NAD’s director of legal services, said during the session: “We are planning to contact the White House first, that’s our first step, and ask, ‘What is your plan for communication access? Do you have a plan to provide an interpreter?’
“I expect the response to be ‘no’, but maybe the response will be ‘yes’ and that would be great. If not, then that will help us to really understand clearly what are their intentions.”
Calls for the Trump administration to reinstate ASL interpretation follows repeated attacks by the president on the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion – also known as DEI.
Following his inauguration on 20 January, Trump signed an executive order demanding an end to “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing”.
