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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Daniel Harris

‘Inclusion is a family’: Arsenal’s sign language change is spreading the love

Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium
Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium utilises British Sign Language on its big screens and has interpreters pitchside for pre-match and half-time announcements. Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

The majority of football matches are middling to dull, and before the start of every season, the majority of fans know their team will spend it ensconced in mediocrity. So why do we keep coming back?

Max Parsons has been going to Arsenal all his life, since the Highbury days – “I used to go with my dad but he’s stopped, he’s an old man,” he says. “Arsenal’s like family to me. And it’s part of my love. I have a partner, a son, and I feel like I love Arsenal as well. That’s my life.” Because he is deaf, he has never felt quite fully welcomed – until now, thanks to the incorporation of British Sign Language into everything that happens on the Emirates’ big screens.

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