SINGAPORE – A group of local undergraduates were left feeling bemused and then upset earlier this week when their work was re-used by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) without proper acknowledgement.

The four Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students had re-imagined a series of images from the International Symbol of Access – also known as the Wheelchair Symbol - as part of Project This Ability, a campaign created for their final-year project (FYP). It aims to promote awareness of disability sports in Singapore.

One particular design, featuring two wheelchair symbols playing para table tennis, was posted by the ITTF on their Facebook page – with the group’s branding cropped out. This led to the group commenting on the post to request for credit by “tagging” their own FYP page, to no avail - resulting in them sending the same request via email.

But while the ITTF responded and subsequently took down the post, the seemingly curt nature of their response upset the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information students.

One of the members, Collin Wang, posted about the experience yesterday on his personal Facebook account, along with screen-caps of the original ITTF post, their request and subsequent email exchanges.

This drew ire from online commenters, most of whom were angered by the ITTF’s stance. The post garnered 478 “likes” and 374 “shares”.

“The photo had a reach of 35,000, which is already a credit to you and your work,” read part of the ITTF email, sent by its Head of Communications. “The photo was taken ourselves on public property, which made it impossible for us to know who to credit.”

Wang said: “… (ITTF) implied that we should be grateful brats as the reach of 35,000 was a credit to our work … Just because we are a small entity ourselves, doesn’t mean we can be trampled on.”

When contacted, the 27-year-old told TODAY that the signs were placed at selected MRT train platforms, near accessible toilets and lifts last Saturday as part of their campaign.

“All the signs placed at the MRT stations came with our logo, branding and tagline with a call-to-action to our Facebook page,” he explained, noting that the group were “taken aback” by ITTF’s email response.

“It’s pretty upsetting because we had spent a lot of time on the designs, modifying it, creating different versions of it, testing it on our beneficiaries before actually implementing the signs.”

An ITTF spokesperson told TODAY the response was “taken out of context” and they are keen to work with the group to “promote their very cool project”.

“The ITTF appreciates organizations like Project this Ability all around the world who are advocates of disabled sport,” he said.

“I saw this great sign on a MRT in Singapore over the weekend, and I knew our international fans would enjoy it, so I put it up on our Facebook page, as it is great promotion for disabled table tennis. On Monday, I received a complaint that we didn’t tag who created it.

“I replied to them why the tag was missed, and my line ‘The photo had a reach of 35,000, which is already a credit to you and your work’ purely meant that it was great that their work has been seen by so many people, not that they should not be credited for their work.”

The ITTF “re-shared” that particular image from Project This Ability’s Facebook page last night, “tagging” them in the post as well.

While Wang said the group still feels that the ITTF’s reasoning for not crediting or “tagging” them initially is not “justified at all” as all their re-designed signs are accompanied by Project This Ability’s branding and logo, he said they will not pursue the matter.

“As just a student group, we definitely do not wish to complicate things by bringing any legal matters into this,” he explained. “We do have other campaign initiatives and moving forward, we hope to be able to focus our energy on those instead.”