The 2024–25 NHL season is young—and with accessibility in tow.
On its website, the NHL is providing weekly game highlights in American Sign Language (ASL). The work follows the league’s coverage of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals, which saw the Florida Panthers defeat the Edmonton Oilers 4–3 in the best-of–7 series, that featured an alternative telecast in ASL. The broadcast, which the NHL boasted was “the first major sports telecast dedicated fully to the Deaf community, featuring live Deaf broadcasters calling real-time play-by-play and color commentary entirely in ASL,” was available on ESPN+ and SportsNet+.
The NHL’s webpage for its ASL initiative contains a slew of videos showing the signs for things like goal, slapshot, stick-handling, and more hockey terminology. In addition, there are links to other stories about the NHL’s work in making its games more accessible, including one to a 2022 piece about the Winter Classic being broadcast with ASL interpretation in collaboration with PXP. The 2022 Stanley Cup Finals, between the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning, were also given ASL treatment, as were NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s traditional “State of the League” address prior to Game 1 of the Finals.
Earlier this year, I spoke with PXP founder and chief executive officer Brice Christianson about his company’s partnership with the NHL. He told me it’s a “dream come true” to work with such an “incredible” partner like the NHL, adding the league’s commitment to inclusion vis-a-vis accessibility is the furthest thing from performative. Christianson said emphatically the NHL “has always been authentic” and asserted “I’ll run through a brick wall for anything the NHL does from top to bottom.”
“This has been a partnership that has evolved over the past couple of years,” Christianson said of PXP’s work with the NHL. “It’s a blueprint on how sports teams and leagues can operate with an authentic allyship lens. It’s a blueprint on how access does not have to be complicated. There’s a lot of time that goes into it. Oftentimes it’s restructuring the system, but it really does come down to just communication, belief, and execution. Like I said, I’m not here without the NHL… guaranteed.”
Christianson, the eldest of three children and a CODA, said today’s technology is ultimately what enables the work PXP and the NHL do. He noted the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community historically haven’t had access to live sports largely because the technology hasn’t existed for them. The production is lots of work, he added, but it has “exceeded all my expectations” and the result of long hours and steadfast dedication.
“It’s an exciting time for the NHL,” Christianson said of its ASL initiative. “It’s an exciting time for accessibility. It’s an exciting time for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. They deserve it.”
When asked about feedback, Christianson said there has been “an outpouring of support,” although he conceded feeling some apprehension. He may be a CODA and fluent in ASL, but that doesn’t make him Deaf. He can’t fully relate to the experiences of those in his family nor any other deaf person. Christianson noted historically hearing people have “taken advantage of” Deaf people for their own gain, adding he’s had to work extremely hard to earn his “street cred” with the community since becoming the first-ever pro sports interpreter in 2019.
“What we’re doing is for the Deaf, led by the Deaf,” Christianson said. “It’s what Deaf people want; I’m so grateful to be a small part of it.”
Whether Christianson and PXP widen their aperture to work with other leagues, he said “that’s up to them.” For now, Christianson and crew are staunchly committed to working alongside the NHL in the future. “They took a chance on us,” Christianson told me, “and we will reciprocate that by having them be our number one priority moving forward.”
Christianson continued: “When people work together, magical things can happen. This is a new standard we’re setting [and] we’re implementing moving forward. The NHL are pioneers, and they deserve a lot of the recognition and credit. I’m excited to see what lies ahead.”