Use Your Voice with Levi’s

On Thursday, October 29th, Leila and Kriston of SignVote were featured in Levi’s Your Voice series. See what they had to say about voting and voter suppression. 

Transcript

Leila (Bottom)

Yes. OK. So now this is fully accessible. We’re ready to go ahead and get started.

Hello, everyone, My name is Leila Hanaumi and I work for SignVote. SignVote is a campaign by CSD, Communications Services for the Deaf.

So, what is SignVote exactly? Yeah, you’re right.

Our tagline is the vote in ASL So really, ASL American Sign Language is the core to accessibility for the deaf community.

Keeping in mind that before we go ahead and proceed, we do want to give you a little bit of a background story about how SignVote actually got here on Levi’s Instagram platform today.

You really need to back up and maybe perhaps you’ve seen the PSA public service announcement by Levi’s to encourage people to get out and vote.

There’s Jaden Smith in it. Lots of famous people. Hailey Bieber. Justin Bieber’s wife is in there, and to be honest, you know, this was a really groundbreaking PSA.

And why is that? Because there was an ASL provided throughout the entire PSA for the entire advertisement. And that is probably one of the first times that we’ve ever seen a big name, a big brand, provide accessibility as part of the entire process and not just as an afterthought.

The actual interpreter involved in the PSA. Her name is Rorri Burton. She is also took a step forward to let Levi’s know in advance as far as promoting sig language and promoting voting in the deaf community. There is a campaign that is already doing part of the work for the deaf community. And she wanted to be connected. She wanted to provide the connection between Levi’s and SignVote.

And so that’s when we got the email out of the blue saying that we would have an opportunity at SignVote to work with Levi’s. We were thrilled at the opportunity and jumped at the chance. And so it’s actually funny that Rorri is working as an interpreter here with us today.

So we wanted to call Rorri in join us, just for a couple of minutes.

Hi, everybody.

Leila is saying, Hi Rorri

Yes, so it’s been really exciting. I’m a little bit nervous today, but I wanted to thank you for helping us, leading the way, making this opportunity for us to be here. So if you wanted to share a little bit about your experience with the PSA or anything, really, you wanted to share with the community. Go ahead, Rorri.

And Rorri says Yeah, sure, I can do that. It’s been really thrilling to have this opportunity to be up on camera and especially with the PSA. That was a thrilling experience. I don’t know in depth what happened and what was going to happen next in regards to the PSA. I didn’t know where that was going to lead me. But Levi’s had sent me an email after the fact and they said, oh, these are the different organizations we wanted to support, especially voting and voter registration

So when I pulled up the list of names of the different organizations. The list, I looked through it, but really there was none. No deaf names present there. There was no deaf organizations in regards to the vote and Levi’s didn’t know this, of course, they’re a hearing organization. But I knew.

So when I saw that, I felt a little bit uneasy. So I thought I would take the opportunity to connect you guys with Levi’s. And Levi’s, of course, is very open minded at that. And so they got in contact with SignVote and they were more than willing to get in contact with you.

And I didn’t know what’s gonna happen next after that. But you guys are here today, and I feel like, wow. It was a wonderful opportunity for the deaf community and the hearing community to work hand-in-hand with each other.

We have to know that hearing people aren’t the only voters out there that deaf people are voting too, and that needs to be accessible. So I’m just happy to be here with you guys. Of course. Thank you.

And now Rorri’s going to go back to voice interpreting with her team of interpreters. So for those of you watching just now that she’s gonna bescreen and she’s the whole reason that we’re here today, she’s been behind the scenes.

She’s working with the Levi’s team right now and her interpreting team. And so we’re just trying to make sure that this content is accessible and we’re emphasizing that.

So most of the time, Instagram is not an accessible platform for the deaf community. There’s only small features that there are interpreters or captions, but really that is not deaf friendly. So we just wanted to emphasize the fact that Instagram is not accessible and we wanted this video on Instagram to be accessible for everybody.

And so, you know that, you know, people automatically think accessibility and they imagine different things when they think of that word. Perhaps people think of a building as a building accessible to someone who uses a wheelchair.

In the past… There there was no accessibility provided in architectural design. That entire process did not include anything. So things would have to be retrofitted later.

Yeah. Exactly.

So once we have really decided to embrace universal design and universal design includes accessibility for people who use wheelchairs. That design has become different. Architecture has become different in the most beautiful way, and it completely benefits so many people, not just people who happen to use wheelchairs.

It benefits me as a mom, for example. Once I bring my baby in a stroller somewhere, I’m able to use the universal design ramps to provide access so people who have created architecture with universal design have figured out that it benefits people at large.

And for us, access is related to more than just architecture and a building. It’s related to language, ASL interpreters, captions, perhaps some type of audio for some people. But captions are not good enough by themselves. It’s not suited for everyone in every discussion. There are people who have experienced language deprivation and so just the use of captions. Does not provide important information, especially as it relates to Covid 19, to voting, to politics So it’s quite important that we provide that information in more than just captions. and ASL is part of that process.

You’re exactly right. And that makes me think about how we as a nation. The hierarchy of power that we have here established, and that starts with, you know, a limited group of people who have the power here in the USA. And that’s typically been white men that we, you know, call our founding fathers. They left Britain because they wanted to have their own way of life. So they came to America.

They set up the colonies and they established what that means to have rights. And they designed the system for what our country would be built upon. And that country that was designed for white men that was not designed for the rest of us. They thought about where did they want to live? What would success look like for them? And they built a system that would help them achieve that.

And there’s been a lot of changes since then, you know, as far as voting rights go voting started with a group of white men after slavery was abolished. There was civil war, there came civil rights protests. And those were all included with, you know, challenging, of course, the system, as it were.

So when black men said, we want to vote as well, we want those rights also. That process expanded the group of people who had power.

Like, OK, you guys are going to have rights, too. Then women spoke up. We want to have voting rights as well. So that pool of voters expanded as well one more time.

What is interesting, though, it wasn’t until recently when people were able to say when did women get the right to vote? And do you know what year that was, Kriston?

Not bad. Not bad.

Forgive me for putting you on the spot We have to wake up the audience a little bit and get their brains running as well. So on paper, the response is 1920. That’s when women suffrage, that movement happened in 1920. And the amendment was passed for women to also have the right to vote.

However, we just have finally realized that not all women received the right to vote because black women still did not have voting rights after that, 1920 did not mark their suffrage. Yeah, they had to fight. They had to, you know, go along with what was what was given to them. And we tend to…

You know, say hey, well you have to wait your turn. It’s not your turn yet. Now hold on. We’re giving the rights to someone else, not you yet. And it continues like that.

So it wasn’t until 1964 when the Voting Rights Act was passed that removed a lot of unnecessary obstacles to voting because, for example in the past. Some of the requirements to be able to vote included things like you had to be able to pay a property tax You had to pass certain reading and writing exams. And so those were barriers for black people because they couldn’t own property while they were slaves.

Exactly.

So the system was already set up to be a barrier to black people to make it harder for by BIPOC people black, indigenous people of color to vote. And so when the Voting Act was passed, it removed those blockages. And deaf people benefited from that as well, from the Voting Rights Act being passed because there are people who are deaf, who experience language deprivation, who deaf people tend to have higher unemployment rates. So when those barriers for the black community were removed, there were barriers also removed for the deaf community. And so we have to recognize that we have also a huge blackhole in our deaf community.

Yes.

So that’s an example of how we think about accessibility, but that really benefits not just us as a community, but other people as well. Yay!

Yeah. We have to center the most marginalized people and figure out why they are, where they are and apply whatever they need. For example, as we’re making content to post on social media, always try to think of a real person that might be looking at your content, try to think of, you know, they might be black. They might be someone who’s deaf. They might be someone who’s blind or someone with a disability. They might be someone queer or trans, someone female. I try to think of actual people that I know in real life. And so that definitely changes my mindset. As I go to post, for example, I have to say you know, if I’m adding a picture, do I need to add a picture description? I’m thinking of a person who perhaps would not be invited or welcomed or included in my content if I did not do that. So it makes me feel different. It makes me feel like, oh, this isn’t quite right and I want to make sure I include that person. So it forces me to take the time to add the extra image description or as I’m filming something.

Sometimes I want to post something that you know, I’ll see maybe my white friends for example, would look at a picture of a black person and maybe not respect it or, you know, something just does not sit right with me. I have to think. And, you know, in my brain, I’m kind of having a conversation that person as I go along. That’s my approach. So it’s a really powerful way. A concept for me to do that. So I have to be… Mindful that technology is completely different today and hopefully companies will join along and recognize that there are people who are using their technology who need accessibility, that’s different than what they are.

I bet that 99% of these companies have not considered accessibility for someone who perhaps is blind or has different needs. So it does wor when you do that. And that’s something that we need to improve right now. There is a movement to better our lives, to have a society that’s way more inclusive.

 Yeah, that’s a good example.

 It’s frustrating huh?

 Oh, yeah.

 So you mentioned the presidential debates. That is actually a great example of why we need ASL interpreters, because we all saw what happened during the first debate. There was so many interruptions back and forth. And so the captions really were worthless at that point because we couldn’t even tell who was speaking. The captions were just running and we didn’t know what was going on.

 So DPAN.TV, one of our SignVote partners, we do partner with DPAN. They were able to provide ASL interpreters on their platform. And what it looked like was one interpreter per speaker, plus one interpreter for Trump, one interpreter for Biden, as well as one interpreter for the moderator.

 So there were times when all three signers on the screen at the same time, all three interpreters, because that was what was happening in real life. There were all three people speaking at the same time. So we were able to follow. Who is saying what and when. And it’s true accessibility for our community. You know, as far as that, deaf people were able to finally plug in and see what was going on, I had a friend’s parents say that was the first time that they actually watched a debate and understood what was happening. So that’s quite inspiring to see.

And I do want to talk about, Kriston, you mentioned something that was very important. The milestone ADA 30th anniversary this year that happened There is a story that I want to share with you, a real example about how important voting is and how much the law is impacted. So during the spring, and the summer, when Covid 19 really was burgeoning here, the White House had press briefings where there was no ASL interpreters provided ever.

 So we as the deaf community, we try to reach out to the government and say, hey, we need to make sure ASL interpreters are provided. We need this lifesaving emergency information provided to us. We need to know what’s going on. Yeah, go ahead.

Exactly.

 So, again, DPAN.TV came in SignVote supports DPAN.TV also. And every morning they would have to get up, watch the news, confirm the press briefing was happening, call a team of interpreters, make sure everyone was at the ready. Have the cameras, all the equipment ready. Pay their team, pay their staff, pay for the equipment, which is not cheap. By the way. And so they tried to depend on deaf businesses, including CSD, because they do sponsor with finances as well. Just to be able to provide access for the president’s press briefings. So think about the energy and all the money, you know, that was meant for other things that we have to use to provide this for our community.

So what ended up happening is NAD Which is National Association for the Deaf. They decided to go ahead and sue the White House. Because the White House did not provide ASL interpreters for the Covid 19 press briefings. And so they were not accessible. So in NAD decided to sue. The White House response was… No… It’s not the White House’s responsibility. It’s the news channel’s responsibility. They film us. They broadcast it on their channel. Therefore, they have to add the interpreters. So that case has gone to federal court. And the judge reviewed, looked at all the precedents and did rule that the NAD was correct. And based on the Americans with Disabilities Act, it said that the responsibility would fall on the White House, so that was a huge win for the deaf community.

And so that takes us back to 30 years ago when the ADA was initially passed. Without that ADA without that law, what will we have done? What grounds will we have at to stand on to sue the White House? What law would they have broken? There would have been none. It would just kind of been, you know, nebulous. Out there in the air based on someone’s opinion.

So this is not based on opinion. It’s based on law. And how that law came to happen was back at that time. People were voting for state senators and there was a senator named Tom Harkin who happened to have a brother who was deaf. Tom, who I actually met, he’s a super great guy. He does sign. He was one of the few leaders of the bill 30 years ago before ADA became law. So I think he’s from Iowa, I believe. But the people of Iowa voted Tom to take leadership to become a senator. And so he was the one who introduced that huge life changing bill that would provide accessibility for deaf Americans. So as we vote locally, that affects state officials and those people do impact laws on a national level.And so that’s the world we live in today.

That’s a perfect segue to my next question. What does the future look like to you? I don’t know if this wish is a little bit radical or not, but for me, the future looks like everyone’s signing.

Yes.

Yeah. I don’t expect everyone to be fluent in ASL, you know, level 4, or level 5, ASL signer. No, but I mean, it’s not impossible for everyone to have just even a basic understanding of sign language. to know their alphabet. to be comfortable with gesturing, to be comfortable with using their facial expressions, to use body language as part of their communication package. And not just be so limited and reliant on audio and their voices. I mean, because there’s so many people who speak languages and speak languages beautifully and there’s so many spoken languages. but sometimes it’s like a linear process where you speak one word at a time that, you know, versus a signed system, a signed language. where it’s, visual and spatial. And, you know, you use your space and you use your facial expressions to express and convey emotions. And so…That is a very human aspect as well. So I wanted to see in the future where everyone becomes more at ease with expressing themselves via sign language. And so that whole thing would support just an open mindedness where you’re not assuming that everyone that you meet. Can speak to you or can hear you. And so that would be beautiful to have that around us all the time. If you’re in a public space, Right now, everyone’s wearing masks.

Yeah, or we, you know, maybe won’t even realize that someone is actually trying to speak to us. And so they’ll get upset with us because we’re not responding to them. So I would love for people to just be… More kind and to not assume, you know, maybe the person doesn’t communicate in the same way as you do and to realize that maybe their needs are different than what your needs are and that it’s OK to have that happen. And so that we can shift our energy in that directionto figure out what that person’s needs are and then we can come up with a resolution.

One thing I have to add is that the deaf blind community operates differently. They don’t depend on eye contact. They depend on such. Yes, they use the tactile sign language. And so it’s become its own language, really, it has own rules. It has its own everything.

So…That is also a different way of connect via touch. So I think maybe that this would be a good segue into something we want to teach our audience a little bit of sign language, right?

 Some of our audience members perhaps are familiar with the name Christine Sun Kim. She is a deaf sound artist and her work is fascinating. It’s brilliant. You’ve never seen anything like it before. So she’s just designed a logo for The New York Times. I believe. And we in the United States We voted there’s like a little logo with a check symbol. So Christine Sun Kim has designed one that says “vote finish” which is kind of the ASL ized version of that, which means I voted.

Are you guys ready to learn wha that would look like? Vote Finish That’s how you sign that. We’ll do it again. I’ll sign it for you guys again. vote finish So, Kriston, did you vote already? I did do early voting in person. I went to the polls one tip, for you people who want to vote in person, go ahead Google “local polling wait time” And there’s a map that comes up with that.

Excuse me.

And so some websites will actually provide you the actual waiting time. and so you can pick a poplace that has something, youknow, perhaps under 20 minutes. You can go you know, it’s a smooth process. It’s very safe. So you can vote in person that way like I did.

So I think this is time for any last thoughts that you might want to leave our audience with. If you are deaf and hard of hearing or you just want to see ASL content related to voting, go ahead and subscribe to SignVote’s weekly newsletter or you can just check out our website, which is signvote.org

We do have these cool t shirts for sale on the website. And we have signable merch We’ve got cute little like a future sign voters that you can get for your babies, perhaps a little onesie? Things like that. Whether you’re a sign voter or a future sign voter, merch for them. Also on the website… What else do we have? Go ahead and follow SignVote on social media and stay included. Keep us in mind for future actions, and our future will look bright if we include everyone. 

Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. We love you guys, Why are you guys gonna vote?