The National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit against the White House last week, accusing the administration of cutting off access for deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans by discontinuing American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation during official press briefings.
The suit, brought in federal court in Washington, D.C., argues that the White House’s decision to stop providing ASL interpreters violates both the First Amendment and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability by federal agencies.
The association is joined in the lawsuit by two individual plaintiffs—Derrick Ford of Indiana and Matthew Bonn of Maryland—who are both deaf and rely on ASL to access spoken communication.
ASL interpreters began appearing at White House press briefings in 2020 following an earlier lawsuit brought by the NAD. The Biden administration had continued the practice, including providing ASL interpretation on White House livestreams and social media platforms like YouTube and X. But the practice reportedly ended in January 2025 without formal explanation.
The lawsuit demands that the administration resume live ASL interpretation during all official press briefings and make those interpretations available across all platforms where the briefings are broadcast.
