Ahead of this year\u2019s Oscars<\/a>, all 10 Best Picture nominees<\/a> will have American Sign Language interpretation for the first time in history.<\/p>\n It\u2019s part of The Oscars Project, the latest pursuit of SignUp Media, an accessibility and entertainment company that has independently produced and distributed ASL<\/a>, BSL (British Sign Language), and ISL (Irish Sign Language) interpretations for more than 250 streaming <\/strong>TV and movie titles. On March 2, the company will debut picture-in-picture ASL overlays for eight of the 2026 nominees \u2014 \u201cBugonia,\u201d \u201cF1,\u201d \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d \u201cHamnet,\u201d \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d \u201cSentimental Value,\u201d \u201cThe Secret Agent,\u201d and \u201cTrain Dreams\u201d \u2014 through their free-of-charge Google Chrome extension, joining the existing BASL (Black American Sign Language) version of \u201cSinners\u201d and ASL version of \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d from HBO Max.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe saw an opportunity to do something that\u2019s never been done before \u2014 making all of the Best Picture nominees available in ASL so Deaf audiences could experience the films the same way everyone else does: fully, in their native language, before the biggest night in Hollywood,\u201d said Harriett Seitler, SignUp Media co-CEO and former marketing executive for MTV, ESPN, and Harpo Productions. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge audience segment, and we believe Hollywood, producers, and the Oscars all win by treating this as a global event.\u201d<\/p>\n Work on the project began shortly after the nominations announcement in late January, allowing \u201cample time for the team to properly digest each film<\/a> and plan for optimal accessibility,\u201d said Angie McSwain, SignUp Media\u2019s interpreter operations manager. Those weeks also ensured everyone, including interpreters, was ready for the project\u2019s demands, as \u201cmany of these films feature longer runtimes and more mature themes than SignUp has previously addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n The entire company, comprised of hearing and Deaf people (including those from multigenerational Deaf families), <\/strong>was involved, from \u201cour accessibility tech team ensuring seamless delivery across streaming platforms to our interpreter operations team, which handled the casting and creative collaboration that makes each project distinctive,\u201d said Seitler. Casting is a particularly signifigant aspect of SignUp Media\u2019s work, with the company\u2019s ASL interpreters selected with both cultural representation and their \u201cbackground work, interpreting, and performance experience\u201d in mind, said McSwain. With \u201cThe Secret Agent,\u201d she notes, \u201csince the protagonist is Brazilian, this necessitated a specific casting call, which immediately garnered several responses.\u201d<\/p>\n Deaf Brazilian interpreter Jo\u00e3o Gabriel Ferreira was ultimately tapped, along with five others: Everett Glenn (\u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d \u201cF1\u201d), JoAnn Benfield (\u201cSentimental Value\u201d), Rach Burton (\u201cBugonia\u201d), Rosina Mae (\u201cHamnet\u201d), and Scott Keller (\u201cTrain Dreams,\u201d \u201cFrankenstein\u201d). Mae filmed in an at-home studio, complete with her own high-def webcam, studio lighting, a foot-pedal teleprompter that \u201callows me to stay in the flow without using my hands to scroll,\u201d and various backdrops \u201cto ensure perfect visual contrast for ASL.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For years, the Maryland-based Deaf performer often watched the telecast for the fashion while noting films she\u2019d want to see. But engaging more directly with the Oscars\u2019 real-time events often meant relying on online award show updates. The introduction of the Oscars\u2019 YouTube ASL stream in 2022 has made the show \u201cmuch more vibrant and accessible,\u201d with The Oscars Project now expanding that access more directly to the films. It has allowed Mae to watch more with her own family and \u201cshare those moments [like the Oscars] together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cASL accessibility gives Deaf people the same experience that millions of hearing people have. It\u2019s about the buzz, the excitement, and the \u2018oohs and ahhs\u2019 \u2014 bringing all the sparkles and gold of the film industry to everyone,\u201d said the Certified Deaf Interpreter. \u201cCaptions let you read the script; ASL lets you experience the performance. Bringing this level of access to the Oscars isn\u2019t just about inclusion. It\u2019s about setting a new standard for how we view accessibility in entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n The Oscars Project is part of a new, larger strategy to eventize cultural moments in the community and at the company, launched in 2021 by co-CEO Mariella Satow. After her school went remote during COVID, the current Stanford University undergrad, who has Deaf family members, enrolled in ASL courses. <\/strong>\u201cI started talking to members of the Deaf community, and it became clear that closed captions weren\u2019t the gold standard of accessibility that I thought they were. The community needed Sign Language access, whether that\u2019s for Deaf kids who haven\u2019t learned how to read yet or can\u2019t keep up with captions, or Deaf adults who want to watch something in their native language,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among the company\u2019s recent efforts were its nearly day-and-date releases for Netflix\u2019s \u201cStranger Things\u201d final season, with interpretations turned around in under 24 hours. They have also started working directly with studios, including Moonbug Entertainment on CoComelon\u2019s live-action \u201cThe Melon Patch,\u201d and the YouTube animated series \u201cParis & Pups,\u201d <\/em>from Paris Hilton\u2019s 11:11 Media, 9 Story Media Group, and HappyNest Entertainment.\u00a0<\/p>\n These join other wider industry ASL picture-in-picture efforts from PBS Kids and JAM Media, as well as the day-and-date releases for HBO Max\u2019s \u201cThe Last of Us\u201d <\/em>Season 2 and \u201cIt: Welcome to Derry.\u201d The demand is already visible, with the \u201cParis & Pups\u201d Halloween episode\u2019s ASL version overindexing with the show\u2019s core audience according to publicly available data, earning 112,000 or 11% of total views when combined with the 905,000 views of the non-ASL version.\u00a0<\/p>\n A <\/strong>2021 American Community Survey found that around 11 million Americans \u2014 or 3-4% of the U.S. population \u2014 identify as Deaf or having serious hearing difficulty. ASL usage is not tracked by the American Census, as it\u2019s not currently classified by the federal survey as a spoken language. But according to 2022 research from Gallaudet University<\/a>, around 6 million people total use it, including about 1 million Deaf and hard of hearing adults. That makes ASL the third-most-used language in the U.S., behind English and Spanish.<\/p>\n Under the ADA, theaters are not presently required to provide picture-in-picture ASL, but they must provide auxiliary aids and live ASL interpreters when requested. As a result, few distributors produce and release ASL or even open caption versions for theatrical screening \u2014 which their critics consider distracting, obstructive, or visually unappealing \u2014 forcing deaf audiences to rely on devices that may be limited in number or fail.\u00a0<\/p>\n Besides the truly handful of interpretations that have started to arrive once popular films hit streaming (HBO Max\u2019s <\/em>\u201cMinecraft: The Movie,\u201d \u201cBeetlejuice Beetlejuice,\u201d and \u201cSuperman,\u201d and Disney+\u2019s \u201cAnt-Man\u201d), Hollywood has largely ignored the potential of \u201ca bigger, more engaged audience\u201d for whom ASL is their primary language, said Seitler. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing more producers and studios selectively choosing to support the ASL community, but in our opinion, the Deaf community is vital, it\u2019s big,\u201d she continued. \u201c[They] represent 5 to 6 percent of the world\u2019s population. That\u2019s hundreds of millions of people who have historically been underserved by mainstream entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n The Deaf community\u2019s fight for equal access to entertainment has been a long one, and alongside what the community itself, social platforms, and even Deaf content creators can currently do, closed captioning has remained one of the most significant access tools. Developed back in the 1970s, major legal and legislative wins tied to captioning have driven much of its early success and adoption \u2014 from the 1990 Television Decoder Circuitry Act requiring all new TVs include the technology, to the National Association of the Deaf\u2019s 2011 lawsuit<\/a>, which required Netflix and other streaming platforms to caption their libraries.<\/p>\n In the decade or so since, growth around captions has also been accelerated not just by Deaf people, but also by hearing people. They are now a constant presence on platforms like TikTok, and a 2023 YouGov poll<\/a> found 63 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds use subtitles in their primary language, whether for improved comprehension or to address issues like noise pollution. Media attention over CBS\u2019s \u201cspeaking in non-English\u201d caption backlash at the 2023 Grammys and the 2023 Sundance Film Festival jury walkout<\/a> has also shifted an industry that has historically treated access as a burden or afterthought.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/The-Wolf-of-Wall-Street.jpg?w=300&h=168&crop=1\")
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