Chris Haulmark shares an example of how dangerous using an unqualified ASL interpreter can be, especially for Floridans facing Hurricane Irma.

Transcription:

[Video Description: Chris Haulmark is standing in the kitchen while wearing white long-sleeved and button-up shirt.]

Hello everyone!

This is Chris Haulmark, running for Kansas's Third Congressional District.

Today's vlog covers yesterday's Facebook Live video, over at and shown in Manatee County, Florida.

An official was speaking and releasing information on warnings regarding Hurricane Irma, which is due to pass Florida very shortly.

The official had a person standing next to him, designated as "American Sign Language interpreter,” whom was wearing a yellow shirt and flip flops.

[Thinking]

The "ASL interpreter's" name is Marshall, as has been shared by The Daily Moth.

Impressively, The Daily Moth also shared an excellent informative video about this tragic situation.

After watching the Daily Moth, we wish to strongly emphasize that Marshall may have thought what he was doing was for a good cause, and was trying his best in interpreting, HOWEVER this performance is not acceptable, because Marshall is neither qualified nor capable of providing complete access to the Deaf community, with members fluent in American Sign Language, watching in order to understand what actions are necessary during Hurricane Irma.

Okay, let's take a step back and consider- this atrocity is one of the many excellent examples for everyone to understand about how ALL Deaf people suffer such a horribly audist system of institutional ableism oppression, all of which is a huge risk to the Deaf community, just like this!

Because the unqualified ASL interpreter may provide dangerous misinformation or minimal information, causing deaths of Florida Deaf community members(!) due to potentially misunderstanding of botched communications.

That is totally unacceptable!

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

With this in mind, you, too, can see how our congressional campaign suffers the same institutional oppression!

Imagine if I trusted audist and ableist organizations to choose sign language interpreters, risking unqualified or incompetent translators distorting or misrepresenting my message, the campaign would instantly lose support from listening voters!

That is why it's so very important to fundraise for paying the top-quality ASL-interpreting teams.

This need is why I plead for you to go and contribute to DeafInCongress.com and
donate towards the cause.

$10 is all that's needed from each our many fellow supporters.

The donated money would tremendously help our campaign translate the powerful and specialized messages reaching Kansas's voters.

[Grinning]

Donate today!

[Video fades into a black background with a logo of a cartoonish Chris Haulmark signing “Believe” with white text of “Yes, We Can Believe” below the logo. There is the text of www.HaulmarkForCongress.com at the bottom]