The National Hockey League and it's subsidiaries have preached inclusiveness in one fashion or another for quite some time, and through that, they have been fortunate enough to garner the attention of groups in society they otherwise hadn't been able to previously. With the announcement that Hockey Night in Canada shared recently, it seems that the league and, more importantly, one of it's broadcast partners are interested in bringing the game to another historically marginalized group of people.
Hockey Night in Canada announced Wednesday, ahead of the Stanley Cup Final, that their broadcast would be available in ASL, or American Sign Language, for those who are deaf and/or hard of hearing and generally require the use of closed captioning to enjoy any television broadcast they are interested in tuning into.
The Stanley Cup final becomes the first of the four major sports championships in North America to be offered with ASL as an option to watch. The upcoming broadcast of the final comes on the heels of TNT doing a broadcast of the U.S. Women's Deaf National Soccer Team and their match against Australia last weekend.
This is fantastic news for the deaf community and the disabled community as a whole, as it shows that major networks are doing their best to at least begin to make their programming more accessible to as many viewers as possible. Breaking barriers for the deaf community is a massive step in the right direction, as it shows that the network is serious about giving everyone an opportunity to enjoy the game and doing their best to preach that hockey is for everyone.
