Interpreting in the Deaf President Now Protest: An Organizational Overview

In 1988, members of the American deaf community protested

the appointment of a hearing person as the president of Gallaudet

University, the world’s only university for deaf and hard of hearing

students. After a week of protest, the university’s board of trustees

capitulated and bowed to all the protester’s demands. As the protesters

engaged in a variety of demonstrations and other public events,

they were joined by dozens of American Sign Language/English interpreters,

who worked to ensure communication between activists,

journalists, members of the university’s administration, the police,

and others. In this paper, I use a case method approach and analyze

archival and interview data to describe the provision of interpreting

services in the protest. I employ concepts from social movement

studies and contentious politics to contextualize the experiences of

the interpreters. Using archival and interview data, I elucidate patterns

in their experiences and provide a holistic description of their

organization, work, and challenges.