Volunteers support deaf community on match days at Carlisle United

Carlisle United have introduced volunteers to support the deaf community at Brunton Park.

Their role is fairly broad and can range from signing anything missed during the match, being on hand to answer questions and helping in an emergency, such as a fire alarm.

Shelley Harrison and Rebecca Kiggins are both are from the Cumbria Deaf Association, a local charity based in Kendal. They’re part of a team of nine EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) volunteers appointed at the start of the season.

Rebecca is profoundly deaf and often comes to the games alongside her family, which she says inspired her to start volunteering.

She uses British Sign Language and told ITV Border: “I’ve seen within the deaf community, people talking about football a lot and being really enthusiastic about it.

"They love to come to the game, they just don’t enjoy the actual experience of it because they struggle with getting the tickets over the phone.

“They can’t speak for themselves and then there’s just that communication break down so then they just stop coming."

It’s hoped through the support of the volunteers, this will start to improve.

Shelley believes that having the volunteers there can help to improve confidence and since the start of the season they say they are already seeing more deaf people coming to Brunton Park.

She says: “It just makes such a difference to the deaf person's life.

“If they know that they've got there's a group of people at Carlisle United who can sign. We found that a lot more deaf people want to come to the game."

Peter Shaw from Carlisle is profoundly deaf and has been to Brunton Park since he was a child, when he used to go with his father.

Since retiring, he says he would like to go to more matches and says having an interpreter on a match day made a real difference to his experience.

He said: “I mean, it's the atmosphere, isn't it, when we score. It's that euphoric feeling - I really enjoy that.

“It was really useful to have the interpreter there and just to experience the little chat behind when the kids were saying Boo.

“I have obviously I have to take my eye off the game to communicate with my friends. It was really useful to know when the players were going offside and if I missed a certain bit.

“The interpreters were there to pick that information up for me so it was really good."

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