United States
Hello. This is our story.
We wrote the law. The screens still owe us.
Access on this page: Signed: American Sign Language — pending How this page is tested
In March 1988 we shut down Gallaudet University for a week, until it gave us a Deaf president. Two years later, on 26 July 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was law. When streaming ignored it, the National Association of the Deaf took Netflix to court — and by 30 September 2014 every title in its US library was captioned. When cinemas ignored it, the Department of Justice wrote the rule: since 2 June 2018 every digital screen must offer captions and audio description. The law is ours. The delivery is still one lawsuit at a time.
ASL video — this story, in our language
A named American Deaf creator tells this page's story in ASL. The video is the page, and the text is its transcript's cousin. This video existing is the reason this page is allowed to exist.
The law is thirty-six years old.
The delivery is still one lawsuit at a time. So we build it — ourselves.
What do you want to do?
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I want access
Watch.Understand.Belong.
Streaming, cinema, and services — in ASL, captions, or audio description.
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I create access
Create.Get paid.Be seen.
Deaf signers, interpreters, captioners, audio describers — your work, your name, your income.
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I provide access
One API.Every screen.
Platforms, governments, cinemas, companies — deliver real access with one integration.
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I back access
Host.Sponsor.Invest.
The builders who will end the one-lawsuit-at-a-time era — be part of the firsts.
Go
More than one of these can be yours. The access is for you, and you can be paid to help make it.
Access in the United States today
When we fight, America's own courts agree with us.
The ADA requires effective communication, with primary consideration for the person's own choice. Since 2 June 2018 every digital cinema screen must offer closed captions and audio description. Since 2014 Netflix has captioned its entire US library — because we sued. And on 4 November 2025 a federal court ordered the White House to put an ASL interpreter back on every press briefing — because we sued again.
And we know the exhausting part: broadcast law requires captions and does not mention sign language once. Every win binds one company, one office, one briefing room — and the next denial starts from zero.
We are done winning one lawsuit at a time. The delivery comes next — made by us. That is what ally is: Deaf and blind creators, paid to make the access — ASL, captions, audio description — delivered to any screen.
In plain words
The law is on your side. What is missing is the service — and that is what gets built here, with the community.
Why captions alone are not enough → Why sign language
Talk to us
Tell us who you are
Write in your own language. We reply in it.
- Emailpartners@a11y.media
- Video messageSend a signed video — no writing needed
Contact us by form, email, or a signed video message — never voice-only.