The Australian Football League are currently refusing to provide an Auslan Interpreter for the Australian Anthem on Grand Final Day. 

 Auslan is a visual language used by the Australian Deaf Community. It uses manual communication to convey meaning and combines movement of the hands, body and arms as well as non-manual features such as facial expressions to express ideas and concepts. Just like all Signed Languages, Auslan does not have any written form and follows a completely different grammatical structure to English. Therefore, closed-captions are neither a ‘fitting’ nor a ‘suitable’ option. Closed-captions also require a screen, which means that participants who attend the event at the MCG will also miss out on the Anthem.

 The AFL often claims to support and promote diversity throughout their programs and events, but is refusing to provide Auslan Interpreters for a singular event, which does not seem to celebrate diversity at all. As a huge institution in our country, we believe the AFL has a social responsibility to provide appropriate access for their fans and members. Just as the AFL provides appropriate access for Australians with mobility needs, we consider it your obligation to provide Deaf Australians AFL events in their language as many other sporting bodies overseas do - such as the Super Bowl in the U.S. The responsibility of accessibility should not fall only on the broadcasters like Channel Seven or Fox Sports to provide closed-captions for the event.