In response to COVID-19, many institutions, organizations, and companies are transitioning to remote work and distance learning. More and more live press briefings are taking place online, without any access. Government agencies are realizing the need to provide ASL translation for their web content. This impacts access for deaf and hard of hearing people.
As of now, there’s no way to search for deaf interpreters who have a video studio or are experienced with platform interpreting, let alone live emergency press briefings.
To address this, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and National Deaf Interpreters (NDI) are working together to list such interpreters in a public directory. This on-going directory will be kept available online for local, state, and national level agencies to consider when looking for an interpreter for their live press briefings, companies and schools for their remote work and distance learning, and agencies looking for interpreters with translation experience that have access to a video studio.