When new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler visited Oakland last week for a town hall, among those taking the mic was a local ASL interpreter who couldn’t miss the chance to bring words of truth directly to power.
Steven Jablonski explained how his employer, Purple Communications, and other VRS companies are speeding up work, hurting message accuracy and causing interpreter fatigue and injuries.
“While the letter of the law requires equality, the spirit of the law cries out for justice,” he told Wheeler, drawing cheers from the standing-room only crowd, which included advocates for equal access brought together by the Voices for Internet Freedom Coalition.
Watch the video here or read the full text of Jablonski’s remarks below.
Remarks to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on justice in the VRS industry
Good evening Mr. Wheeler. I am Steven Jablonski and on behalf of my colleagues in the Video Relay Service Industry (VRS), welcome to Oakland.
I work as a sign language interpreter for deaf and hard of hearing people who want to place that phone call that the hearing people take for granted. My employer, Purple Communications, is just one company that provides this service and is reimbursed by the FCC for these calls.
We applaud the FCC for continuing to root out industry fraud and mismanagement. However, the burden of the resulting reimbursement rate cuts are borne by interpreters and the clients we serve through unsafe work speed-ups that affect the accuracy of interpretation.
There is much the FCC can and must do to protect this taxpayer-funded service.
We urge the FCC to use research budget funds to study the effects of work speeds on interpreter health and message accuracy and to make the VRS industry transparent so researchers can study the impact of the use of non-certified interpreters and the rate at which experienced ASL interpreters are leaving the VRS field. These are urgent requests to ensure the long term integrity of this important service that deaf and hard of hearing people rely on to have equal access to communication, rights guaranteed under the ADA law.
While the letter of the law requires equality, the spirit of the law cries out for justice. That is what we are asking for tonight: justice for VRS interpreters and the clients we serve.
