The White House has its First Full-time ASL Interpreter

American Sign Language interpreter Elsie Stecker, who is completely deaf, has been named the first-ever official White House ASL interpreter.

Image from CBS News video

She tells CBS News:

"This is a dream job of that combination of the political information and the interpreting. It fits me very, very well."

The Biden administration has also hired a non-deaf ASL interpreter, Lindsey Snyder, as a member of the staff. They will spend hours every day reading about topics on the White House schedule. When an event starts, Snyder listens, then interprets for Stecker, who signs in front of the camera. Snyder says:

"I am interpreting from English to ASL, and I am essentially feeding Elsie, who then takes that message and interprets it. I call it real-time editing."

CBS News has a video report: