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Audio service for blind World Cup fans
Transcript
22 June 2014
Roberta: For this week’s segment we’ve decided to embrace Football World Cup in Brazil, and joining me to discuss a special access service made available to blind football fans is Media Access Australia’s CEO and soccer tragic, Alex Varley. Welcome Alex.
Alex: Hello Roberta.
Roberta: Now, blind football fans can go to games and enjoy the atmosphere and the match, but now I understand there is a service that enhances the experience. Tell me about this.
Alex: Yes, so the service which is in Brazil is, it’s a little bit like theatre description and live event description that you get in other places. So it’s where the fans can sit in the stadium and they use a radio receiver, like an FM device, to pick up a special audio description service. And it’s actually in four of the World Cup stadiums in Brazil, so in São Paulo, Rio, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte, and that will include the finals as well. And it’s been coordinated by a group in Brazil, the Portuguese acronym is URECE, which actually means the Blind Support Association. And what they said was, well, there’s six and a half million blind and vision impaired people in Brazil, and football is part of their culture, and culture for blind people as well, so important to have this service.
Roberta: So what sort of training do the match describers receive?
Alex: Yeah, so it’s very much like audio description theatre situations, and what they actually do is they work in pairs and for this particular service there’s 16 volunteers, and they’ve actually been trained by an organisation called CAFE, or the Centre for Football Access in Europe, which is based in London, and what they do is they basically sit them down and teach them how to pick up all the visual information, because typically match commentary, even on the radio, tends to include stuff about tactics and what’s happened with the teams in the past and things. Whereas what the describers in the stadium do is they look at things like, well, you know, what are the colours, what’s the body language of the players, facial expressions when things happen, what’s the ambience of the match, yeah, what’s going on in the crowd, and they don’t really look at tactics and things. Obviously they describe what’s happening with the ball, but it’s more the visual elements that’s interesting for those people.
Roberta: Mm. Where else in the world is this offered Alex, and what about Australia?
Alex: Well of course it all started in Europe, which is why the main organisation is based in London, and has that name of Access for Football in Europe. And it’s been going for about five or six years in Europe now, and the last European Championship, which is the soccer equivalent to the World Cup for Europe, that was in Poland, and that had quite extensive description. And I believe also that some of the sports in the US, the big ones, the American Football and the Baseball have description in some of the stadia as well. But of course in Australia we don’t really have anything established like that. I know there are some cricket tragics out there that have worked out some system of their own, but I don’t think there’s actually anything formal in place yet. But I think it’s something that could easily be replicated, because it’s a bit like audio description in theatre, and it’s the same sort of skill set and people doing it and the way it’s delivered, so I wouldn’t have thought it would be that hard to flip it across to sports.
Roberta: So Alex, the big question: Who is your tip to win the World Cup, regular and Paralympic in Rio in 2016?
Alex: Well, of course the easy one to say is Brazil, although people have been watching them play; that might be a trickier call now. I think Brazil will win the Paralympic World Cup Soccer because Brazil has an extensive Blind Soccer League, and they are actually the current world champions, and they are absolutely amazing to watch them play, and it’s all done with a little bell inside the ball and some people calling out to them what’s going on. But they’re much better than regular players, I think. Yeah, I think Brazil is going to win it all.
Roberta: Oh well, we’ll look out for that one. Now, to find out more about access to media and technology, visit Media Access Australia’s website, and that is mediaaccess.org.au or you call the office with any questions on (02) 9212 6242. Thank you so much for all of that today Alex; a very different topic, but a very important one.
Alex: Oh yes, extremely important, especially for soccer tragics like me, so thanks Roberta.
Roberta: [laughs] I’ve been speaking with Media Access Australia’s CEO and soccer tragic, Alex Varley. Media Access Australia are supporters of this programme.