On 18 February 2014, CAFE Head of Development in Eastern Europe Elena Karpukhina and CAFE Project Coordinator in Ukraine Oleksandr Ostapa had a meeting with Oleksandr Atamanenko, the Director of the Donbass Arena.

The Donbass Arena is the home stadium of FC Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine. Oleksandr Atamanenko said that all employees of the arena had incredible desire to create equal access to the stadium so that all disabled fans could watch the games of their favourite club.

During the meeting, the issue about the introduction of Audio Descriptive Commentary services at the Donbass Arena was discussed. Larysa Sayevich, the Project Coordinator of National Assembly of Disabled People in Donetsk (a local implementing partner of CAFE), was also present at the meeting and communicated the messages of a number of blind and partially sighted Shakhtar fans. The Director of the stadium expressed his wish to organise such a service at the Donbass Arena in the near future.

The representatives of CAFE hope that all plans will be implemented so that all disabled fans at the Donbass Arena will be able to enjoy an inclusive matchday experience.

A version of this article is also available in Ukrainian and Russian.

Published 28/02/2014