[TRANSCRIPT AND VIDEO DESC: NAD CEO Howard A. Rosenblum is standing in the NAD lobby. The NAD logo appears on the bottom right corner as a watermark.
Topic #1 — Information about COVID-19
HOWARD: There is a serious disease outbreak called Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Some deaf people do not know what this disease is because of the lack of ASL access to information being shared. This topic is so important that all deaf people need to be aware. This disease is spreading fast across the world. Many places, universities, and sporting events have cancelled events, even some schools have closed. This is very serious. While we are not health experts, we want to share some important information. With this post is a list of some (not all) resourceful links that the NAD has gathered from different organizations and companies. It’s important for you to look at these links to learn more, because if we get into contact with someone who has been exposed to COVID-19, this continues the outbreak and worsens the situation. We need to prevent the disease from spreading by following a few tips. First, avoid being close to another person. You can become sick from being close to a person if that person has been exposed to COVID-19, even if that person is not showing any symptoms. Second, avoid touching your face — if you need to touch your face or eat, first wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizers with 60% alcohol. It is also important to avoid going to events or places with a lot of people, as that increases the chance you may be exposed to COVID-19. COVID-19 can also live on surfaces, computers, or poles that you touch on public transportation, and so on. If you touch those affected areas and then touch your face, you could get sick. Again, please explore the links and be aware, we need to keep ourselves healthy and safe with full and equal access to information in the same way as hearing people.
Topic #2 at 2:13 — Government Communications about COVID-19
HOWARD: Information is already shared widely about COVID-19 across the globe explaining how to take care of ourselves, how to avoid being affected, what to do if you become affected, who is mostly affected by COVID-19, and so on. There’s so much information about this online already but all of them are in English within the USA. The World Health Organization (WHO) monitors and shares information about the outbreak internationally while in the U.S. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors and shares information about the outbreak. The CDC reports to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They have been releasing information about COVID-19 frequently for the past several months. I reached out to them a couple weeks ago asking about ASL access with their information, they said they would. After a week, I followed up with them only to get the same response. This is not acceptable. Deaf and hard of hearing people must have equal access to their information! What they shared online should be accessible to us! Where is our access? I’ve repeatedly asked them to provide ASL with their information but they’ve yet to do so. I am sure you are just as frustrated as I am. With this post is a link for you to contact HHS and CDC — tell them you want ASL access now, not later. We shouldn’t wait until we’ve become sick, we should get the same information so we can take care of ourselves. Preventive care is important right now. Also, tell your local city government to provide ASL access with their information also. Your Mayor, Governor, state and local health agencies, and any other local official should include captions and ASL interpreters in their press conferences on TV and social media. We’ve seen some press conferences that have done this successfully, please thank them if you see any! If you see any press conferences without access, tell them this is not okay. If there’s been no change or improvement to access — tell the NAD. In fact, we’ve seen some press conferences include the ASL interpreter in the shot but only half of the interpreter is visible or not at all. News coverage on this emergency should always include the ASL interpreter. If you reach out to any of them, feel free to include us in your email. Everyone should know that deaf and hard of hearing people have the right to equal access to information in the same way as hearing people.
Topic #3 at 5:02 — Deaf Students’ Access During University Remote Status
HOWARD: Different places including universities, colleges, and schools have decided to close and have students continue their education online, remotely from home. Some government agencies, private sector companies, and non-profit organizations are closing their offices and encouraging their staff to work from home. This is fine but we need to consider access to communication for deaf students and employees. Universities like Gallaudet University and NTID have switched to providing their education online — we are sure those institutions will have access to communication. However, what about people who study at a hearing university and use an interpreter or captionist in class — how will this work with online learning? Will these places ensure ASL interpreters or captioning are provided through their online platforms? Make sure you find out. If your university or college is planning on remote learning after your spring break or soon, it is important to communicate and ask about ASL interpreters and captioning now. Do not wait, ask them now so when your online learning begins, you’re ready to start and continue your lessons. If you wait, you could miss a few weeks of classes. We encourage you to look into this now. If you face any issues with universities that are not complying to your accommodations requests, contact the NAD. This post includes links to information on what your university or college can do, you can share this with them.
Topic #3-B at 6:41 — Deaf People’s Access During Employment Remote Status
For deaf people who work, if you have any problems with communication accommodations, contact the NAD. Tell your employers now before your offices close and you start remote work, meetings, or conference calls. Usually you can use your VRS provider to participate, but if you have a teleconference meeting, please discuss your communication accommodation with your employer. It is important that we’re not being left behind. We need to be careful with this disease — however, our lives need to go on. We need to keep learning and working, and be a involved in daily life on the same level as hearing people.
Topic #4 at 7:10 — The NAD Goes Remote
HOWARD: The NAD will continue to operate normally with responding to information and resource inquiries through phone and email. The NAD Headquarters office in Silver Spring, Maryland will close to visitors. We will let you know when we open the office again. For now, please email or call us, you can also use our online webform to contact us. You can still contact us in different ways but we are closing our Headquarters office until further notice.
Topic #5 at 7:40 — #NAD2020 Still On
HOWARD: The NAD conference, which will be in my hometown, Chicago on June 30 to July 5th, will still happen as planned. I understand that many people are concerned about how Coronavirus (COVID-19) will impact the conference, wondering whether it will be cancelled or postponed. As of right now, the conference is still happening this summer. We are aware that some people who work in the government or work for private companies and their employers have set travel bans. This may mean you can’t register to take advantage of the early bird registration fees as well as the early bird exhibition booth registration fee. We will extend the early bird rates for both until May 31st. You can save some money on registration fees by waiting until May 31st. If you’re unsure if you want to register because of a possible cancellation, please do not worry. If you register and we announce a cancellation — we will refund your registration in full. Go ahead and register knowing that we’ll proceed with the conference — if we don’t, you get your money back. We will continue to monitor the situation over time. If there are any new announcements, we will let you know. We will continue with the conference, as planned. See you in Chicago!
Screen fades to a dark blue background. Red alphabet letters of “N-A-D” in American Sign Language appear one by one in the center of the video. The copyright text appears underneath, “National Association of the Deaf, Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved”.]