Transcript –
Hi my name is Elena Shapiro treasurer for VTAD. I want to update everyone on what the VTAD board has been doing. We have done a lot. We met every day and discussed different topics and various approaches on what we should do. We wanted to update everyone on what we have done and what we need your help with.
First we wrote a formal letter. That letter was recommended by NAD. We modified it to fit us better. That letter states that an ASL interpreter is required and that the interpreter remains on the TV screen the entire time. The video should not be zooming in and out and taking the interpreter out of the video. We also stated that we require captioning and that the caption must be the right size, not large and covering half the screen. That was our demand in that letter.
That letter – Laura our secretary did upload on the VTAD Facebook page and on our website. You can see the letter for yourself. www.deafvermont.com. That letter has a petition with over 375 signatures. We want to thank everyone for their support in signing the petition. The second item included is the video sequence document. This document was created from different pictures I took during the press conference yesterday. It includes a timeline and covers both WCAX and C-span. WCAX kept zooming the interpreter out of the video. They didn’t show the interpreter fully, and we kept missing the information on the screen. WCAX captioning was in the middle of the screen and it was hard to see the interpreter with the large captioning fonts. It was a frustrating experience. C-span had the interpreter some of the time, zooming in and out but had NO captioning at all.
FOX44 news were awesome. They had the interpreter and captioning on the screen the entire time. VTAD will write a letter thanking them for their support. That letter is available and you can read it for yourself. That letter includes a petition link. That link is not active. We want to preserve privacy for everyone who signed the petition and now broadcast their names and emails. The second link is to the video sequence document. You can see for yourself the pictures that were taken and the comments included.
WCAX showed the video then switched to other news, while C-span ran the video live for the entire conference without switching or leaving to other news. There were some pros and cons with both TV stations.
We sent that letter to the Commissioner Monica Hutt, Governor, WCAX TV, C-Span and the FCC.
WCAX did reach out to us but we have a hard time getting a hold of them. Their voice mail box was full. We have been struggling to get ahold of them, but we did send an email with all the attachments. The letter to the FCC was responded by them quickly asking for more information like the websites that we were watching and what time. So we sent them all the info. The FCC encouraged all the deaf people to send them an email too. The more people that file the complaint, higher the chance that FCC will have a strong case to address those TV stations and Governor’s lack of interpreter availability. This is a requirement for ADA by FCC to ensure that the interpreter is there and captioning is available. We need your help with that.
Now we will post a template “example” of the letter you can use to copy and paste and send emails to those TV stations, Governor’s office and the FCC. We will provide the emails for everyone. If you do not want to email, but prefer to call instead, we will provide a list of phone numbers for them as well.
The VTAD board has email – admin@deafvermont.com and a phone number for us. We will post this on the website. If you have concerns, questions, or want to help, feel free to email or call us. We appreciate your help. What we need from you is to send those emails. The more emails you send to the Governor or FCC, or the TV Stations, the higher the chance they will respond. They will be required to respond because many of you filed a complaint. We need your help with that. Lastly, be SAFE. We will all be fine. Thank you.