The White House is being sued for not having a sign language interpreter at the coronavirus briefings.
The National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit on Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against President Trump and his office alleging that not having an American Sign Language interpreter visible on-screen during White House coronavirus task force briefings is tantamount to discriminating against people with disabilities by potentially blocking them from access to health information.
By not having an interpreter at the briefings, the suit claims that the administration was discriminating “against individuals with disabilities” by blocking “access to critical, potentially life-saving information conveyed by our nation’s political and public health leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The lawsuit also claims that the governors of all 50 states have used sign language interpreters during their press conferences while the White House has not used one.
The lawsuit contends that the president and the White House violated the Rehabilitation Act and the First Amendment. It asks the court for declaratory relief, whereby the court would recognize the association has a right to access the coronavirus briefings fully and that the president has a responsibility to provide them access.
In their lawsuit, the association asks the court to “award Plaintiffs reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs and award such other relief as this Court deems just.” If the matter between the White House and association is resolved, the litigation would not continue.
The National Association of the Deaf said in a letter to the White House in March that they had “received daily complaints from deaf and hard of hearing citizens across the country asking why their President is not ensuring they are getting the same access to emergency information as everyone else.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment. A coronavirus briefing has been scheduled by the White House for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. EDT.
