In the first week of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term in office, posts on social media sites including X and Facebook alleged that his administration had removed all videos featuring American Sign Language interpreters on the White House's website and YouTube channels. Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the claim was true and if it was a result of executive orders Trump passed banning diversity, equity and inclusion practices within the federal government.
It was true that, as of this writing, there were no videos featuring ASL interpreters on the White House's website or its YouTube page. However, the posts making the claim imply that Trump specifically ordered the removal of these videos, something there was no evidence to support. Snopes reached out to the Trump administration for comment on the matter and will update the story if we hear back.
The White House website is always revamped when a president takes office. For instance, Snopes previously fact-checked a claim that the site's "U.S. Constitution" page was also not accessible once Trump became president. A statement provided to USA Today from White House deputy press secretary Harrison Fields mentioned that parts of the White House website would be down only temporarily. It was unclear whether videos with ASL interpreters or the U.S. Constitution page would come back online as part of the renovations.
Similarly, social media accounts also are "renovated" when a new president takes office. As such, all videos uploaded to the White House YouTube channel during former President Joe Biden's term in office were removed, including videos with and without ASL interpretation. All videos from Biden's term have been archived and are viewable on "The Biden White House" YouTube channel.
Under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, all federal agencies must ensure that anyone with a disability has a "comparable" level of access to information. Because it's very early in Trump's term, it's unclear whether he intends to continue Biden's policy of having ASL interpreters at media briefings and other speeches.
Of the eight videos posted to the White House YouTube channel at time of writing, two (an address to the March for Life anti-abortion protest and the official video of Trump's swearing-in ceremony) had captions, while six did not. If the videos currently present on the site are an indication, Trump may choose to meet that requirement using captions instead of an ASL interpreter.