United States
The law is on your side here. The service is not.
American law promises effective communication and mostly delivers captions. We have no anchor in the United States yet. That is what this page is for.
This page in ASL
A Deaf creator from the United States signs this page, credited by name. Recording begins when we have a local creator — that is one of the things we are looking for.
Where the United States stands
Closer than it looks.
In plain words
Here is who lives here and what reaches them. Some of it already works. Where a number is missing, we say so instead of guessing.
Every figure carries its source and says what it measures — surveys that ask people and clinics that test people produce different numbers, and we will not blur them together. Send us a better source and we will use it.
- Deaf and hard of hearing
- 11 million · 3.6% SourceThree measures of three different populations. Only the smallest describes people whose first language is likely to be signed.ACS 2021 via National Deaf Center; Mitchell (2006); NIDCD, 2021
- Blind and low vision
- 9 million · 2.7% SourceSelf-reported through the American Community Survey, so it counts difficulty rather than clinical diagnosis.US Census Bureau ACS, via American Foundation for the Blind, 2024
- Functionally illiterate
- 28% of adults SourceA nine-point rise between cycles — the largest movement of any country in this dataset. PIAAC measures reading for everyday tasks, not basic reading ability.NCES, PIAAC Cycle 2, 2023
- Sign language
- American Sign Language (ASL) · ISO 639-3: ase
- People who sign it
- No reliable count exists SourceResearchers have said plainly that the numbers need updating; the often-quoted '2 million' is not traceable to any study. We would rather print this than a number we cannot stand behind.Mitchell et al., How Many People Use ASL in the United States?, Sign Language Studies (Gallaudet), 2006
- Interpreters
- No clean count exists SourceNeither source isolates certified ASL interpreters; both are upper-bound proxies rather than counts.RID; US Bureau of Labor Statistics, SOC 27-3091, 2025
The gap, in one number
There are not enough interpreters. There were never going to be.
Interpreters are skilled professionals and there will never be enough of them to cover every film, lesson, clinic visit and news bulletin. That is not a criticism of interpreters — it is arithmetic.
Recorded sign language does not replace an interpreter in a hospital room. It covers the enormous amount of content no interpreter was ever going to be booked for — so the interpreters go where only a person will do.
Not counted
Nobody publishes how many sign language interpreters work in the United States.
That absence is itself the finding — a country cannot staff what it has never counted. What we do know applies everywhere.
Captions run at 140–230 words per minute; median Deaf comprehension is around 100–140 — and comprehension falls as caption rate rises.
Why captions are not enough · Send us a real interpreter count
Promised, and delivered
Compliant isn't the same as understood.
The United States has already written much of this into law. The distance between the promise and the ordinary day is where we work.
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The law says
Effective communication is federally required — including interpreters, with primary consideration given to the person's own choice.
In practice
Broadcast law requires captions on all new programming and does not mention sign language once. In November 2025 a federal court had to order the White House to restore interpreters at press briefings.
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The law says
No federal law makes ASL a medium of instruction.
In practice
About 85 in every 100 deaf children are taught in mainstream schools, often as the only deaf child in the room.
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The law says
Emergency services should be reachable without a voice.
And it works
Mostly they are. 3,967 emergency call centres accept text out of roughly 5,300, and video relay with an interpreter is federally funded. Americans sent 2.2 million texts to 911 in 2024.
An ordinary day
Today, and when this works.
Not emergencies. Ordinary days, in this country, as they are now — and as they are somewhere else already.
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The evening news
Today
Captions run across the bottom, because that is all the law asks for. No interpreter, on any national bulletin, on any night.
When this works
An interpreter on the national bulletin, the way it already happens in other countries.
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School
Today
About 85 children in every 100 are taught in a mainstream classroom, often as the only deaf child in the room.
When this works
ASL in the classroom, and Deaf teachers standing in front of it.
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Calling for help
Today
Text to 911 works in most places now, and video relay puts an interpreter on the line. In the remaining call centres, it is still voice only.
When this works
Every call centre, not four in five. This one is nearly done.
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A press briefing
Today
Interpreters at White House briefings were withdrawn, then ordered back by a federal court in 2025. Access argued case by case, not settled.
When this works
Interpreters as standard, because it is normal — not because a court said so.
None of the right-hand column is hypothetical. Every part of it already works in some country — a signed news bulletin, an emergency line that answers without a voice, Deaf teachers in a Deaf school. Just not all of them in the same one.
An ordinary day, signed
This section matters most to people who do not read the written language, so it is first in the signing queue for this country.
What would change here, starting now
Months, not years.
Three things a local partner and a11y could put in front of people quickly — each one already built, just not here yet.
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Content people actually watch, in ASL
Deaf creators here sign films, lessons and public information, and are paid for it. The delivery layer already exists — what it needs is this country's sign language in it.
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One city, one service
A single public service — a clinic, a council channel, a cinema — made accessible end to end, with the receipts published. Elsewhere that has meant ordinances passing and budgets moving.
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A signed news digest
A regular summary in ASL, made by paid local Deaf creators. Small enough to start this year, and it is how a creator community starts earning.
These are descriptions of a first project, not work we have done here. We have no partner in the United States yet.
Who this gets built with
We would not be arriving to an empty room.
Deaf communities here have been organising, teaching and campaigning for decades. Anything we do belongs alongside them, not in front of them.
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National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
Deaf-led
Founded in 1880 — the country's oldest civil rights organisation, established by Deaf people to defend sign language and Deaf self-determination.
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Gallaudet University
Deaf-led
The world's only university where every programme is designed for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students, bilingual in ASL and English. Deaf-led since the 1988 Deaf President Now protests.
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National Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA)
Deaf-led
Advocacy for Black Deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans since 1982, with more than 30 chapters.
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DPAN.TV
Deaf-led
Deaf-founded arts and media network producing ASL music videos and Deaf-anchored news.
These organisations are not a11y partners — they are the people already doing this work here. If we come to this country, it should be alongside them.
People signing in ASL today
This list names real people, so it publishes only once each of them has been checked. Suggest a creator we should include.
Start something
Looking for a partner.
No local anchor yet. We are looking for a Deaf co-founder, a partner or a first city here.
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I sign ASL
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf creators come first here. If you sign, you are who we most want to hear from.
Go -
I know who you should talk to
Name them.Introduce us.
An association, a school, a broadcaster, a creator. A name and a reason is enough.
Go -
I work for a city or government
Mandate.Budget.Service.
You may already have the law and the money. What is missing is the service.
Go
Know your rights
What you are entitled to here.
In plain words
These are things the law already says you can ask for. If you have been refused any of them, that refusal was against the law — not a favour you were denied.
Written plainly, with the law behind each one linked as a receipt. This is the part of the page we would most like a local Deaf organisation to check and correct.
- Your language
No law names ASL a national language, but effective communication is federally required.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) requires auxiliary aids and services, including interpreters, with primary consideration given to the person's own choice. Section 508 covers federal technology; the CVAA (2010) covers captioning and audio description.
- On television
Not required. Broadcast law requires captions on all new programming and does not mention sign language once.
In November 2025 a federal court ordered the White House to restore ASL interpreters at press briefings — access won case by case under disability-rights law, not guaranteed by broadcast rules.
- At school
About 85% of deaf children attend mainstream schools rather than schools for the deaf.
No federal law makes ASL a medium of instruction. Widely reported figure; the underlying dataset is not published in one place.
Reported by Utah Public Radio, SmartBrief and Columbia Teachers College
- In an emergency
Yes, in most places. 3,967 emergency call centres accept text to 911, out of roughly 5,300 nationally, and Americans sent 2.2 million texts to 911 in 2024.
Video relay with an interpreter is also federally funded. Coverage is not universal — the remaining centres are voice-only.
What opens a full page
This page grows when three things are true.
- A local Deaf creator has recorded this page in American Sign Language — named and paid.
- There is at least one real, local fact with a source behind it.
- Someone owns keeping it current.
Until then it stays honest about what it is: the situation, and an open invitation. All countries · See a full country page