ITTF: We did not intend to discredit students’ work

By Sean Loo, Sports Editor

A group of NTU students has been posting designs as part of its Project This Ability campaign. This particular design was uploaded by ITTF in its Facebook page.

A “big miscommunication”.

This was how the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) explained the tense email exchange it had with a group of NTU students who had accused the ITTF of using their artwork without attribution.

A group of final-year Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information students had redesigned disability access signs as part of their Final Year Project (FYP). On Friday (17 Feb), the ITTF uploaded one of the designs on its Facebook page without the necessary credits.

When the group emailed ITTF for proper attribution, the organisation emailed back and said: “The photo had a reach of 35,000, which is already a credit to you and your work.”

The reply, shared on Facebook by a member of the FYP group, drew the ire of netizens and other students.

When asked to explain the meaning of the ITTF’s email, ITTF head of communications Matt Pound told the Nanyang Chronicle that the reply did not intend to discredit the students’ work.

“What was intended for it to be meant is it’s good for everyone in general,” Mr. Pound said. “It doesn’t mean that we don’t want to credit (the group).”

Mr Pound said he hopes the students “continue to keep on the good work” in promoting disability sports.

In response, team member Jeremy Hau said they had already moved on from the incident, adding that they hope to collaborate with the ITTF in the future to “further the disability sports scene”.

Hau added: “We will be contacting the ITTF to see if they can help us share our videos and other resources.”