Northeastern ASL instructor Rachel Borman-Kobylarz says the addition of an ASL option for the post-apocalyptic drama’s second season raises the bar for deaf representation.
When “The Last of Us,” HBO’s critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic drama, returns for its second season on April 13 it will be available in American Sign Language, a first for a major TV show.
Viewers will be able to choose to watch the video game adaptation with professional deaf performers Daniel Durant and accessibility advocate Leila Hanaumi signing on screen. As of March 31, viewers will also be able to watch the first season of “The Last of Us” in ASL as well.
The show joins recent movie releases on the Max streaming platform that include support for ASL: “Barbie,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”
For those who don’t use ASL, it might seem trivial, but for Rachel Berman-Kobylarz, an ASL instructor and associate academic instructor at Northeastern University, it’s a landmark moment in the world of TV. Increasing the visibility of deaf people, both in front of the camera and as interpreters, is invaluable for a community that has not always had on-screen role models.
“I didn’t have deaf representation growing up as a deaf child,” Berman-Kobylarz says. “If there is an opportunity for deaf children to see themselves on the screen while watching a popular movie or tv show with their family and be able to bond with one another, that would be amazing. Can you even imagine the impact that would have on their life?”
Outside the deaf community, it’s not always clear how important ASL is. What’s the point of watching “The Last of Us” with ASL when you could watch it with captions? Berman-Kobylarz says many deaf people prefer ASL over English. Plus, ASL can capture the emotional complexity of a TV show like “The Last of Us” better than captions ever will.
“ASL will show and incorporate the tone, the prosody, the emotion that’s happening through facial expression and body language,” she says. “It can also show subtext or underlying messages and sounds cues that may not be picked up by captioning alone.”
But the inclusion of ASL also cuts to the core of conversations around acceptance, language and identity that have been taking place in the deaf community for decades.
More than 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents and often learn English first. That was Berman-Kobylarz’s experience. Deaf children often don’t have access to ASL because of where they live, what resources they have or what attitudes their parents, and health care providers, have about it.
Berman-Kobylarz is also quick to point out that deafness is a spectrum. There are children who are born deaf to deaf parents and grow up using ASL. There are people who become deaf later in life after years of speaking English. Rarely, there are also hearing parents who understand deaf culture and the vital role ASL plays in it.
All of this context means that when a major studio like Warner Bros. Discovery chooses to release one of its flagship shows with ASL, it’s a recognition that the deaf community, in all its diversity, matters in American culture, Berman-Kobylarz says.
“For many deaf people, they prefer American Sign Language, so when we provide ASL interpretation on the screen, it means that it’s more inclusive of everyone, [including] people who use American Sign Language as their primary language,” Berman-Kobylarz says. “You have that choice at that point: You can use ASL or you can use English or both. It’s great to be able to decide for yourself.”
A move like this is only the first step toward more representation for the deaf community, but it’s a step that Berman-Kobylarz says could serve as a model for other studios to follow. Specifically, she hopes it proves to studios and broadcasters the viability of picture-in-picture, which lets viewers watch two video sources on their screen simultaneously.
In this case, video of deaf performers is playing alongside a TV show, but Berman-Kobylarz would like to see it expand to live sports and even news.
“Even if you look at the Super Bowl, which is a big sporting event –– everyone watches it –– there’s a resistance to having picture-in-picture on the screen with deaf performers for the halftime show and the national anthem,” Berman-Kobylarz says. “The community is really working hard to fight for that access because for so long we’ve had to watch ASL for the halftime show and the national anthem on a separate streaming platform.”
However, more than anything, Berman-Kobylarz says this first major step shows that “there are different ways to be inclusive” but they all start with including deaf people in the creative process from the get-go. That helps when it comes time to make a film or TV show available in ASL, but it more importantly is vital for ensuring that deaf performers can appear in front of, not just behind, the camera in an authentic, accurate way.
“I would like to see more of that, more deaf talent in mainstream movies and having a role in the movie, not just as a translator,” Berman-Kobylarz says. “This is a start, but they deserve to be stars and have a specific role in these films and TV shows.”
Northeastern University staff interpreter Cayle O’Brien provided ASL translation for the interview used in this story.