Manchester City have announced the launch of a pilot series of Etihad Stadium tours to be conducted with a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter, alongside the club’s official tour guides.
The tours, designed for City’s deaf and hard of hearing supporters in conjunction with the Manchester Deaf Centre, are the first to be introduced by a Premier League club.
They will take place on 15th & 29th July, and will each last 60 minutes, starting at either 11.00am or 1.00pm. Hosted by BSL trained volunteers, they will include access to City’s Directors’ Box, the Executive Lounge, players’ tunnel, players’ dressing rooms, and pitch side in the team dug-outs.
Chris Holmes, Stadium Tours Manager, said: “Our aim is to make Etihad Stadium as accessible as possible to all our supporters, so we hope the pilot BSL tours will prove popular. If successful, we’d like to make them a regular occurrence.”
Jude Nortier, Operations Manager at the Manchester Deaf Centre, welcomed the launch: “It’s great to see a Premier League club like City looking at new ways to reach out to its hearing impaired fans beyond matchdays, and we are really pleased to be working with the club to make this scheme a reality.”
Bookings for the tours are now being taken, with further information available by visiting www.mcfc.co.uk/the-club/stadium-tours.
