President Melissa encourages you to be prepared if you think you have coronavirus and need to go to the hospital. The NAD continues to monitor the coronavirus situation and stand by for updates from the CDC and the state of Illinois regarding the NAD Conference in Chicago this summer.


MELISSA: Hi, I'm Melissa. This is indeed a strange time. Our daily routine has been disrupted by individual states issuing a "Stay At Home" order. Schools are closed, and we're working from home or we've lost our jobs. So many things have happened since quarantine started. Many people have been plagued by the coronavirus and the U.S. Government is struggling to keep up with the pandemic and enforce special rules. Deaf and hard of hearing people must have access to information -- the good news is that Governors of all 50 states have included a live American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter during their emergency press briefing or added an edited version of their video with an interpreter. We must continue to make sure all 50 Governors continue those efforts. We also need to remain vigilant about live caption quality. As of right now, the White House has yet to include an ASL interpreter in their emergency press briefings. The NAD has sent the White House a letter demanding an ASL interpreter. You can use our provided letter template available on NAD.org and edit appropriately to send the White House a letter as well. The more of us that send the White House a letter, the more pressure they will have, the sooner we may see an ASL interpreter. We also rely on social media for latest updates about coronavirus -- however, most of them are not captioned. Broadcasters who post videos on social media are responsible for providing captions with their content. NAD.org has a new tab on the home page, "CORONAVIRUS" that has important information for anyone to access including what coronavirus is, CDC videos, and communication guidelines for the hospital. Such guidelines are very important right now because hospitals have changed their accommodations protocol for the safety of everyone. More and more hospitals have established temporary drive-through and tents to address this. If you think you have any coronavirus symptoms, I encourage you to check the communication guidelines first and be prepared before you go to the hospital. When at the hospital, the guidelines share some tips like downloading several speech-to-text apps and printing a paper that has basic information you can point to, so you have some communication access when you arrive at the hospital. As for the NAD Conference, we are continuing to monitor all updates from the CDC and the state of Illinois. If there are any changes, we will let you know. Stay safe, thank you.