Soccer signing goes global
UCLan’s deaf studies student gains international experience at World Cup
A University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) student proved the World Cup wasn’t a total failure for all England fans.
As the national team disappointed, 22-year-old Philippa Merricks excelled using her sign language skills to report on the matches.
Profoundly deaf Philippa, who has just completed her second year studying on the BA(Hons) Deaf Studies and Education, worked for a deaf-owned media company to create reports which were watched by millions of people worldwide.
The Hastings born student, who was based in Zurich at FocusFive’s headquarters, said: “It was pure luck that I managed to get the job but I’m so pleased I was involved with such a huge sporting competition. I have a keen passion for working with deaf people, especially in other countries where I can use international sign language, so this was a great way to use my skills and gain vital experience.”
FIFA, football’s governing body, required all post-match reports to be presented in International Sign Language so people across the world could access the news without having to rely solely on written reports.
Philippa, who was encouraged to apply for this post only two weeks before the World Cup started, said: “On an average match day, there were two matches, so I had to watch and record them both. Then I would receive the FIFA post-match summary and I had to pick out the important areas of the matches and then translate into international sign language. I then used the text for my autocue for filming the video packages and then they were put on the FIFA website.”
She added: “It was a fantastic experience. Within the first week of the tournament there were 700,000 viewers watching the international signing. It is estimated that the overall viewers for the whole event total more than a couple of million people.”
Philippa is hoping this is the first of many international sporting experiences she can get involved with. “Hopefully in the future there will be more opportunities like this such as the Olympics and European Cup,” she added.
To see Philippa in action visit http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/internationalsign/video/video=1261890/index.html