What’s surprising is that the 164 year old Senate Chamber wasn’t at all designed for wires and screens. Senators are not allowed to use their phones when they are inside the chamber. But just to help with freshman Senator John Fetterman’s stroke recovery, the chamber finally got a new technical update.
Fetterman’s Noteworthiness
Senator Fetterman is struggling with lingering auditory processing issues resulting from the stroke, thus he is subsequently relying on some extra technology. This new tech is installed in his workspace and it needs some new adjustments from pre existing colleagues in an institution as such. And in making something like that put up inside the office, lawyers are now saying that Fetterman is slowly and steadily forging a path for people with disabilities and health challenges to work easier in public offices.
The auditory processing issues that at times makes it super tough for Fetterman to communicate became a primary focus during his Senate campaign last year during autumn. Opponents extensively criticized the Pennsylvania Democrat’s October interview with NBC, while whose recording he confirmed on relying over closed-captioning technology to understand the reporter’s questions, sometimes also mixed up words and also slammed his shaky debate performance. Though Fetterman did give out some information from his doctor in the months right after his election process and critics have heavily questioned his potential to work in this Senate.
Nonetheless, voters weren’t concerned about this at all because he had handled beat Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in a fantastically competitive debate in the Senate’s history. Majorly, he would need some technology that he uses on the campaign trail that thankfully allows him to read what people say in real time.
A New Era
The SAA, Sergeant at Arms has also induced a plan for his work during the very important and resourceful committee hearings and elsewhere around the Capitol. During these events, he can read a live subtitle like transcript of all the proceedings that shows up on his tab. These captions will be produced and taken care of, by professional broadcast captioners rather than an AI to improve efficiency. SAA hopes and works towards improving this quality and starting committees Fetterman is serving upon as of yet to show their entire support and belief in him as well as many others like himself.
The SAA has worked with the of the Secretary of the Senate, the Senate Rules Committee, and Senate leadership in order to get Fetterman’s assistive technology right in place, thankfully doing that did not require any rules changes, since the SAA has the right to provide Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodations to Senators and staff who need them thoroughly.
Fetterman’s office didn’t make the Senator available for any interview based on this story just yet and since the election win, he hasn’t even talked so much to the reporters. He hadn’t answered any questions from any news channel either.
