FRONTLINE, Maine Public Radio and the Portland Press Herald have, for the first time, published a series of American Sign Language-interpreted videos for each episode of its podcast “Breakdown: Turning Anguish Into Action,” a six-part series on the Lewiston mass shooting.

The innovative videos are part of an effort to make the award-winning investigative podcast accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Breakdown examined the deadly 2023 mass shooting in Lewiston, which took the lives of 18 people, including four deaf Mainers, and its aftermath.

The shooting is believed to be the worst mass shooting of deaf people in U.S. history, and, as the series reports, deaf victims and their families faced accessibility constraints as well as communication and information barriers in the aftermath.

“Podcasts are a vital and growing part of the American news ecosystem, yet they remain mostly inaccessible to the millions of Americans who are deaf and hard of hearing,” said Erin Texeira, senior editor and director of FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative. “We’re proud that, through innovative storytelling, we can now bring this important investigative project to all audiences. And we hope this inspires much more accessibility in journalism.”

FRONTLINE worked with the sign language and captioning company Partners Interpreting and two of its interpreters: Joshua Ayoub, who is hearing, and Alicia McClurkan, who is deaf and lives in Maine.

“I’m tremendously proud of the work and learning Maine Public News and FRONTLINE have put forward in the creation of our American Sign Language episodes of the podcast,” said Mark Simpson, Maine Public’s director of news and public affairs.

“This effort furthers our shared goals of more inclusivity for more audiences to experience our reporting, so that those audiences that are part of the coverage are engaged on their preferred platforms and know their communities are reflected in our coverage. I think this is an important step for our journalism.”

FRONTLINE, Maine Public and the Portland Press Herald’s joint reporting is borne out of the Local Journalism Initiative, which aims to promote sustainable, public interest journalism in communities where local news organizations have been hit hard by financial pressures, or in news deserts.

The Breakdown podcast series was awarded a second-place prize for digital narrative podcast by the National Headliner Awards, and the one-hour film has been nominated for two news and documentary Emmy awards and a George Foster Peabody Award for public service.

The ASL videos are available now on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.