The Women’s FA Cup Final at Wembley saw three British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters in operation, for the first time at the stadium.
The big screen BSL service was launched at the Men’s FA Cup Final last season and has been present at all England fixtures at Wembley since May 2022, becoming a permanent part of the in-bowl delivery for all FA owned events at the stadium.
The FA traditionally employs one BSL interpreter, provided by Performance Interpreting Ltd, so deaf fans inside the stadium can follow all the pre-match entertainment. It has become a noticeable element at several events over the past 12 months and meant live football was more accessible to a wider community.
This year, with the aim of making everything around the Final as accessible as possible, the number of interpreters was trebled with Ali Gordon, Radha Starr and Joanna Aldridge all supporting the event.
Ali was positioned pitchside throughout the day, where she was able to provide BSL translation exclusively for content appearing on the in-bowl big screens during the build-up and subsequent coverage of the game.
And Radha, who is deaf herself, was then in position next to national anthem singer Jasmine Faulkner to translate for the crowd and broadcast audience around the world.
She was supported by Joanna, who helped to prompt Radha when the anthem started, to explain the tone and any elongation of the song during the performance.
Matthew Owen, Wembley Stadium’s programming manager, said: “We pride ourselves on being an inclusive stadium, and this further reinforces that commitment to deliver services which make Wembley accessible to all.
“The in-bowl BSL service proved very popular with those who came to the stadium, and we wanted to replicate that for the viewers at home too.”
Sunday’s match, where Chelsea beat Manchester United to lift the title, was the first-ever sold-out Women’s Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, with the 77,390 crowd also the largest worldwide for a domestic women’s game.
Chair of Level Playing Field, Tony Taylor, said: “We applaud this development at Wembley Stadium, which has built upon the success of their existing service over the past year.
“This is an example of where an accessible measure has been introduced, the impact felt by supporters and further improvements coming as a result.
“The growth in BSL provisions at club level this season has been a huge positive and this continued work at Wembley Stadium will also help drive those standards further.”
The FA intends to continue providing the service with a minimum of two BSL interpreters in place for all its events at Wembley in the future.