Action Day – Accessibility
On 4 April we are calling all clubs, leagues and FAs to highlight their accessibility initiatives. We have gathered a few examples of how football organisations have implemented accessibility programmes.
FC Schalke 04
Since the start of the 2021/2022 season, FC Schalke 04 has now also provided a deaf block in addition to the block for people with disabilities and the blind reportage. There, stadium announcements and important information will be conveyed to the fans by sign language interpreters.The idea originated within the affected community, as the project was developed together with the Deaf Fan Club and the “Schalke for All” working group. The block contains a total of 30 seats, ten day tickets and 20 season tickets. The seats will be available to both home and visiting fans, as the aim is to create barrier-free communication for deaf football fans.
REAL BETIS BALOMPIÉ
The Spanish clubnhas added another service for fans with a disability, who can now be accompanied to their seats. Real Betis Balompié, as part of the Forever Green initiative, which aims to achieve zero emissions and reduce the carbon footprint caused by travelling to matches, has taken a step forward to position itself as a benchmark in sustainable mobility. To achieve this goal, Forever Green has expanded the scope of its collaboration with Moovit, Intel, a leading provider of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions and the most widely used urban mobility app in the world, by adding ONCE. Through this application, visually impaired fans are encouraged to use public transport as an accessible and more environmentally friendly means of transport. This way, visually impaired fans or those with reduced mobility who wish to go to the Benito Villamarín stadium will be able to do so easily and intuitively. Thanks to the functionalities of the Moovit app, promoted by ONCE, such as functions to say by voice and exactly what appears on the screen, in an orderly manner and so that the blind person has all the same information through audio. It is a service that extends the special attention that Real Betis Balompié already offers to visually impaired season ticket holders so that they have a better experience during match days.
EFDN Special Champions League
The Special Champions League is a new project of EFDN that will provide a safe, inclusive, and active environment where young people between 10 and 18 years old with an intellectual disability can come together and play football at a level, they are all comfortable with. EFDN will organise two to four European Football Festivals per year hosted by various network members throughout the season. Although the name perhaps suggests something different, the tournaments are non-competitive and a way to promote greater social inclusion and acceptance of disability football within European Football clubs and the wider European population. Through football, we want to get more young people with intellectual disabilities physically socially active in their communities and increase integration and inclusion within society. The EFDN Special Champions League will provide opportunities for participants to improve their physical health, increase their confidence, meet new people, learn about others, and establish social bonds. This first edition was a promising and great success!
TACKLING COLOUR BLINDNESS IN SPORT (TACBIS)
Colour blindness is one of the world’s most common inherited conditions, affecting an estimated 300+ million people worldwide. To address and raise awareness on this issue, EFDN developed the “Tackling Colour Blindness In Sport (TACBIS)” programme which will start in January 2020. Together with our programme partners Colour Blind Awareness, Oxford Brookes University, Randers FC and the National Football Associations of Iceland, Romania, and Portugal, EFDN will investigate the prevalence of colour blindness in football (fans and players), identify barriers to progression for colour blind players and coping mechanisms employed by colour blind players. Together with our project partners we aim to raise awareness for colour blindness in sport and society and promote surroundings that are colour blind friendly.
EFDN Florence Programme
The EFDN Florence programme is named after Florence Nightingale and ‘Floor’, the niece of EFDN’s CEO Hubert Rovers who suffered a spinal cord injury at the beginning of 2021 and became paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 14.
The EFDN Florence programme will provide ill children and young people with the opportunity to become the FAN of the Match from a distance. This initiative will see the robot drive onto the pitch together with the players making it possible for a fan who cannot attend the match due to illness to join the warming-up, line-up, watch the game from the sidelines and join the players after the game during their lap of honour.
IDEAS FOR #MORETHANFOOTBALL ACTIVITIES:
- Celebrate staff involved in your accessibility programmes
- Launch campaign for stadium or physical activity accessibility
- Hosting webinars/online meetings to share resources
- Sending accessibility resources to community organisations
- Highlight projects that further accessibility in your community
- Wherever possible, create social media content (photos/videos) with beneficiaries of your accessibility initiatives
Please use #morethanfootball and feel free to tag our #Morethanfootball social media accounts so we can share your posts and activities.
