Dinamo Arena to be Available for Visually Impaired

The Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs of Georgia integrated an international system of audio description (Tiflo commentary) for visually impaired fans at Dinamo Arena stadium for the first time during the Champions League qualifying round match between Dinamo Tbilisi and Armenian club Alashkert FC on July 12.

Tiflo commentary was created to enable fans with any degree of visual disability to receive an audio description of the match they are attending. Thanks to this system, they are able to feel the real atmosphere at the stadium as much as possible.

Specially trained commentators narrate the game through an audio system reaching visually impaired people via their personal mobile devices and headphones. The commentary includes details like physical descriptions and facial expressions, to recreate the full experience seen by non-disabled supporters present at the games. The audio description technology can be used to cover the entire football stadium with its frequency, meaning disabled fans can choose any seat and still receive the service.

This system has already been widely used at leading football matches for several years around the world. For example, visually impaired fans were able to fully enjoy the Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014 matches, as well as the recent Euro 2016 in France.

The system was implemented in Georgia with the support of Center for Access to Football in Europe (CAFE), Georgia's Ministry of Sport, and Tbilisi City Hall. In the framework of the program, commentators have been retrained to provide people with disabilities with specific information. The new technology was tested before the recent match by a selected group of visually impaired individuals.

Eka Karsaulidze