To ensure the accessibility of World Cup football matches in 2018, the All Russia Association of the Blind (VOS) and Russian Blind Sports Federation (FSS) in cooperation with the Eastern European Department of the Center for Access to Football in Europe (CAFE) - did a great job of providing barrier-free environments in the cities hosting World Cup matches.
In all eleven cities, the projects were implemented to provide an accessible environment for people with disabilities, including visually impaired people. Special seats for disabled people were allocated at the stadiums. A large volunteer programme was implemented, which provided training of volunteers in the specifics of working with disabled people, including those with a visual impairment.
To ensure the accessibility and safety of transport in several cities (including St. Petersburg, Rostov etc.) sports and social facilities were equipped with a system of radio information and sound orientation of visually impaired and other reduced-mobility groups «Speaking City», as during the Paralympic Games in Sochi.
The internet-radio VOS (“Radio VOS”) was one of those three media that received a FIFA license for coverage of World Cup matches. It made 31 translations from nine Russian cities. Blind and visually impaired fans could follow the matches from the mobile app “Radio VOS” in IOS and Android. About 1,240 people joined to the live feed, and there were about 4,714 downloads recorded.
Unfortunately the license only allowed the broadcasting within the territory of the Russian Federation, so visually impaired people in other countries could not take advantage of the audio description. After the end of the World Championships on 16th of July, the VOS radio started to share the broadcasting of the Football World Cup with the audio description to the whole world.
The results of the audio description during the Football World Cup coverage were presented on July, 19 in Moscow. It was attended by representatives of the organizing committee “Russia 2018”, journalists and other representatives of the media that broadcast the matches of the World Cup. Also a group of fans with visual impairments met the sports commentators there and could thank them personally. “Radio VOS” received several letters of gratitude from fans who could follow the World Cup via audio description.