If a network is broadcasting with a sign language interpreter and only shows the signer partially or occasionally, that is ableist.

A signer should be on screen the entire time, either through picture-in-picture, side-by-side, a parallel broadcast, or one of the many other methods technology makes available to us today.

If a network has the space to put a logo, the time, weather, and stock ticker on their screen, they have the space to have a signer.

Additionally, signing and subtitles are not the same. They have different purposes and outcomes.

Having a signer, but only showing them on screen some of the time, is performative, and tokenizing, and it shows that you do not actually care enough about why you have the signer in the first place.

Yes, that is ableist.
Let’s do better.

If something is not accessible for everyone all the time, it is actually not accessible at all. There is no such thing as partial accessibility as that just means it is not, in fact, accessible.

Accessibility is full accessibility for everyone always.

Let’s go.