Ahead of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League Finals, UEFA invited CAFE to showcase our works in the fan festivals in each host city.

Joining some of our fellow UEFA FSR partners, CAFE provided an introduction to audio-descriptive commentary and invited many fans to try the service for the first time.

UEFA invited CAFE and other partners to exhibit within the #EqualGame tents in Lyon and Kyiv, bringing greater awareness to some of the social responsibility works taking place around European football.

CAFE provided fans with information about how audio-descriptive commentary differs to a television or radio commentary, and how the service can improve the matchday experiences of many partially sighted and blind fans.

Members of CAFE’s expert Audio-descriptive Commentary Network were also on hand to provide further information about their roles and responsibilities.

The CAFE team then played clips of iconic UEFA Champions League and Europa League goals and gave fans the opportunity to become audio-descriptive commentators for the first time.

Using blindfolds kindly donated by our friend and partner, IBSA, one fan would try to explain the action to another who had no vision of the clip.

Many enthusiastic fans in both Lyon and Kyiv tried the service, and some even expressed their interest in continuing to develop their audio-descriptive commentary skills.

A number of photos and clips from these exhibitions can be found on the CAFE Instagram page - @cafefootball.eu.

CAFE also provided live audio-descriptive commentary for a number of the exhibition games taking place within the festivals. This included the IBSA blind football exhibition match in Lyon and the Ultimate Champions Match in Kyiv.

Using portable headsets, fans were able to listen in to audio-descriptive commentary provided by members of the CAFE Network whilst also watching the matches.

This was again very warmly received, with many fans saying the service enhanced their experience.

CAFE Managing Director Joanna Deagle said, “It was a pleasure to demonstrate some of our works around audio-descriptive commentary in the fan festivals. This gave us a fantastic opportunity to raise further awareness around access and inclusion, and to remove some of the attitudinal barriers that partially sighted and blind fans can sometimes face”.

“We must say a huge thank you to UEFA for this wonderful initiative and their ongoing support. We are also very grateful to our friends at IBSA for their help in supporting our activities, as well as our Audio-descriptive Commentary Network and our fellow UEFA FSR partners for their support during the festivals”, added Joanna.

For more information about IBSA and their works in promoting sports participation for partially sighted and blind people, please visit their website here.

You can also find out more about audio-descriptive commentary and CAFE’s Audio-descriptive Commentary Network and Training Programme by clicking here.

UEFA has also published a video showcasing some of the great work that took place at the fans festivals, which can be viewed here.

Published 04/06/2018