For Immediate Release: October 1, 2024
Contact AAPD: Jess Davidson at jdavidson@aapd.com; 202-975-0960
Contact D-PAN: Sean Forbes sean@dpan.tv
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is proud to announce its collaboration with the Deaf Professional Arts Network (D-PAN) to provide live American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation for the Vice Presidential debate between candidates Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The debate is on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, 9 p.m. ET.
The Vice Presidential Debate Live in ASL will be streamed on DPAN.TV and can be accessed via DPAN.TV’s Youtube Channel, @dpanvideos. Watch the VP Debate ASL Live Stream at this link.
Debates are an important tradition in the U.S. elections process and play a vital role in ensuring voters can learn about each candidate’s approach to key policy issues so voters can make informed decisions at the ballot box.
“Despite their significance, televised debates have historically not included ASL interpreters in the broadcast, have experienced problems with captioning, and have neglected to include disability perspectives in questions posed to candidates,” said Maria Town, AAPD President and CEO. “These factors exclude voters with disabilities, and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing voters, from accessing media coverage and could also dissuade them from voting in elections. We are proud to collaborate with groups like D-PAN to make the Vice Presidential candidate debate more accessible.”
“Over 50,000 viewers tuned into our September 10 livestream, with tens of thousands more viewing the recording,” said Sean Forbes, Co-Founder of D-PAN. “The community response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic in response to our showing of the 2024 Presidential debate and requests flooded in for us to cover the Vice Presidential debate. We’re grateful for the support of cross-disability organizations like AAPD to make this production possible. We hope to set the standard for major broadcast networks regarding what accessibility should look like in action, and demonstrate the profound impact access can have on a nation, by having those who are deaf and use sign language producing the livestream.”
D-PAN, a nonprofit founded in 2006 to make music accessible by producing ASL centric music videos for music artists like John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, and Eminem to name a few, has evolved over the years. In 2015 D-PAN founded DPAN.TV The Sign Language Channel and began producing access to news, entertainment, and more featuring deaf and hard of hearing ASL users. Today DPAN is primarily an access-oriented organization that focuses on producing accessible media in ASL. D-PAN has used its own funding and resources to provide live ASL interpretation for past debates in 2016 and 2020, including the September 10, 2024 Presidential Debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
AAPD and other national disability organizations and allies, including the National Association of the Deaf, have called on major networks to prioritize accessibility in the 2024 Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, but requests to include ASL-interpreters in the main broadcast have not been met. DPAN’s work is expanding access for Deaf Americans. Access to information is part of accessible voting, and an accessible democracy.
One of AAPD’s initiatives, REV UP (“Register, Educate, Vote, Use your Power”), works to build the power of the disability vote and improve election accessibility. Advocating for campaign accessibility is an important part of that work, and the REV UP network includes several Deaf organizations and activists working to support their community in registering to vote, learning about the issues, and navigating Election Day.
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