All the major news outlets covered it. Newsweek, HuffPost, you name it. Dr. Dre made headlines by announcing that there would be deaf rappers at the halftime show of the LVI (56th) Super Bowl.
It is a big deal. A really big deal. This is the FIRST time in NFL history that ASL interpreters have been part of the actual show.
From HuffPost: Sean Forbes and Warren “WaWa” Snipe will become the first deaf rappers to ever perform at Sunday’s halftime show since its inception in 1967. Although there have been deaf interpreters throughout the festivities, Forbes and Warren will be the first to join the celebration, performing beside Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.
So you’re saying, wow, that is awesome, what a success.
Hold that thought. Did you watch the halftime show? Did you see the interpreters?
I was LOOKING for them (on TV) and honestly had a hard time finding them. Maybe they were on a screen at the stadium the entire time, I couldn’t find the answer to that. But regardless, the majority of the audience is the television viewing audience, and they didn’t get to see the interpreters in full.
There are varying degrees of hearing loss, but as many as 1 in 8 people in the US, or 13 million people, suffer from hearing loss. That seems significant enough to say that interpreters should be visible for the entire performance.
Not to pick entirely on the NFL. Finding interpreters for day to day things is not always an easy task. I think my disappointment lies in the fact that this was so heavily hyped, only to fall flat for those who may have really been looking forward to the experience.
