2024-06-27 08:57
8:57
June 27, 2024
morning
2024-06-27 15:45:00.000000
America/New York
Ahead of the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, 90 disability groups signed a letter to CNN organizers urging them to make the debate more accessible and for moderators to consider topics relevant to the disability community.
“We are hopeful that CNN will truly listen to our arguments that adding these accessibility features to their debate coverage will create a more inclusive democracy and a more informed electorate,” said Maria Towne, president of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), one of the nation’s most prominent disability groups and lead author of the letter.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will debate for the first time in nearly four years on Thursday. The debate, hosted by CNN in Atlanta and moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will not take place in front of a live audience, as has been the case in years past.
There are approximately 30 million adults with disabilities in the U.S., and they do not appear to support any particular political party. The AAPD is nonpartisan, and Town emphasized that including Americans with disabilities in the democratic process is not a partisan effort.
“[Disabled people] “We’re a very diverse group of voters. Disabilities exist in every community. So when we talk about voters with disabilities, we’re also talking about women voters, black voters, seniors, young people,” Towne said. Other signatories include the National Association of the Deaf, the National Disability Rights Network and The Arc of America.
The letter calls on CNN to provide American Sign Language interpreters in various capacities for deaf and hard of hearing viewers, and to ensure that captions are added when debate clips are uploaded. To date, debate moderators have never provided American Sign Language interpreters in any capacity except for viewers in person.
At press time, CNN had not responded to multiple attempts to contact the American Council on Disabilities ahead of the debate, Towne said.
When reached for comment by The 19th, a CNN representative responded but did not answer any questions. They said the telecast will be closed captioned, as the network typically does. They also provided simple instructions on how to turn on closed captioning.
In 2016 and 2020, DPAN, an online-only streaming platform for the deaf and American Sign Language captioning service, offered its own livestreams of the debates with American Sign Language interpretation. DPAN’s website and social media sites did not indicate any plans to offer the service during this election cycle, and it did not respond to requests for comment.
While Towne praised DPAN’s past livestreaming of debates, he expressed frustration that they had to step in. According to Towne, the responsibility for making debate content accessible lies with the networks that host the debates.
“Again, disabled people themselves have to figure out how to mobilize their own resources to meet the communication obligations that the networks themselves have to address,” she said.
It’s unclear what topics the debate will cover or whether the moderator will ask questions that are specifically relevant to the disability community. The letter to CNN suggested a wide range of topics, including funding for home care and special education services, reproductive rights, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of accessible housing.
A 2021 report from the Federal Election Assistance Commission showed that Americans with disabilities are 7 percentage points less likely to vote than those without disabilities, with lack of access to information being one of the reasons for the disparity cited in the report.
Many voters with disabilities also aren’t sure politicians care about them or their issues: A 2023 poll by the progressive firm Data for Progress found that two in three voters with disabilities believe politicians “don’t care about the disability community.” Data for Progress is one of the few companies that surveys disabled people demographically.
Access to information is a particular problem in the deaf and hard of hearing community. If hearing parents don’t know their baby is deaf, or don’t know or use sign language and therefore don’t acquire language at an early age, this can lead to literacy difficulties later in life. Deaf advocates and researchers call this phenomenon “language deprivation.”
Another barrier is that ASL and English are completely incompatible: understanding one does not necessarily mean you can understand the other, and for many in the deaf community, English is essentially a second language.
“American Sign Language and English are completely different languages. ASL is not a direct translation of English and has its own grammar, syntax and cultural nuances. ASL interpreters are able to convey these nuances better than subtitles, which may not capture the full meaning or emotional tone of the content,” said Bobbi Beth Scoggins, interim executive director of the National Association of the Deaf, one of the leading organizations by and for deaf people in the United States, which also signed the letter to CNN.
Scoggins noted that live captions are often incomplete and fall far behind in conveying important information.
“While closed captioning is valuable and necessary for many, ASL interpretation on television serves a different but equally important role by providing direct access to information in one’s native language, promoting inclusivity and ensuring cultural and linguistic representation,” Scoggins said.
Town said the letter request reflects how the disability community has changed its expectations of candidates and elected officials, and that the disability community is committed to supporting increased civic engagement and access to voting.
“For a long time, it was a big deal if a candidate even uttered the word ‘disability’ in a presidential debate or a town hall,” Towne said. “As a community, we’ve come a long way from that. We’re involved in politics. We get out there and we vote. We’re the constituency that candidates should address. We shouldn’t be accepting anymore.” [candidates] “Just by saying the word ‘disability.'”
DPAN CEO Sean Forbes was reached for comment after this article was published, but he told The 19th that DPAN would not be providing debate interpretation this year because it was unable to secure funding.
In 2016, DPAN had an angel investor who funded the ambitious project at cost. According to Forbes, Debate Interpretation was a “phenomenal success,” with over 500,000 viewers across various platforms, but the website crashed due to being overwhelmed with traffic.
“Ultimately, the 2016 debate was funded out of our own pocket in the hopes of garnering greater support from entities like CNN, NBC and ABC,” Forbes said. But that support never materialized, Forbes said.
In 2020, they again funded debate interpretation with part of their grant money, hoping that the major networks would follow suit. This time, too, that support didn’t come through: DPAN did not secure funding for interpretation for the 2024 debates. But according to Forbes, they won’t have to.
“We need entities like CNN, Netflix, ABC, ESPN, LiveNation and others to partner and work with organizations like us to provide ASL access. We don’t expect them to know what to do, how to provide it, or what the best practices are, but we want them to know that they can reach out to us at any time and that we will do our best to make sure that access is a reality,” Forbes said.