During Deaf Awareness Month, PE-owned companies should do better by ASL communicators and interpreters

September is Deaf Awareness Month, a time to shine a light on Deaf culture and honor key figures in the Deaf community and important historical milestones. This week is celebrated by the World Federation of the Deaf as International Week of Deaf People 2024. 

Last month, PESP released the report, “Lost in Interpretation: Private equity’s capture of a vital sign language translation tool,” which highlights the Video Relay Service (VRS), an important tool to ensure that the country’s telecommunications network provides functionally equivalent service to the Deaf community, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Two private equity-owned companies, Sorenson and ZP Better Together, hold a virtual duopoly over this Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulated industry. 

The report highlights the connection between concerning working conditions of the thousands of ASL interpreters that work for these two companies and the quality of service VRS users receive. 

“Often I have to choose between advocating for myself, the deaf client, or the agency I work for. Rarely, do I have work that allows me to provide services for the deaf community without it being at my own expense,” said an experienced ASL interpreter who has worked at multiple VRS companies throughout their career.

For years, these two companies lobbied the FCC for a rate increase, citing that they anticipated wages and benefits would rise by 65 percent over the next five years but, aside from modest cost of living adjustments, workers at Sorenson and ZP Better Together have not seen that reflected in wages a year after the firms secured 30-49 percent increases to reimbursement rates. 

The wage increases that private equity-owned VRS providers used as a partial basis to lobby the FCC for increased rates have not materialized a year after receiving significant rate increases, leading many interpreters to believe that these companies have prioritized profit over their own workforce and customer base. 

As we celebrate Deaf Awareness Month, PESP calls on Ariel Alternatives, The Blackstone Group, Kinderhook Industries, and The Carlyle Group, some of the world’s largest and wealthiest private equity firms that own these two VRS Service Providers, to invest in their workforce to reverse the trend of poor wages and working conditions in the industry that have played a key role in creating an interpreter shortage and diminished the quality of this important service.