There will be more investment in accessibility at the Olympic Games this year. Bild: imago images / Stefanos Kyriazis
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For the first time in more than ten years, the 2024 Olympic Games will take place on the European continent. From July 26th, more than 10,000 athletes will compete for medals in Paris, followed by a separate competition at the Paralympic Games for another 4,000 athletes.
Since the 1960s, Olympia has been investing more and more in supporting athletes with disabilities. For 2024, those responsible for the Olympics have now improved another aspect in terms of accessibility, which should primarily benefit the fan community.
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This year’s games will use a variety of technologies that will make the entire sporting event accessible to people with physical disabilities. In many cases, sporting competitions remain a limited experience, especially if you have a visual impairment.
Six Olympic sports get live audio description
That should change at least for six sports at the 2024 Olympics. As the Olympic Committee announced, the competitions in football, judo, swimming, tennis, horse riding and judo can be followed in the venues in Paris with detailed live audio description.
The corresponding system was most recently tested in French basketball. On the one hand, the audio description is conducted by a sports commentator, and on the other hand, an audio describer complements the visual impressions of the playing field. It is not yet clear which languages will be available.
In total, more than 400 hours of the Olympics will be able to be experienced by people with visual impairments using audio description. Ten disciplines at the Paralympic Games will also be equipped with audio description in the summer.
Coordination took place directly with those affected. “We focused on the sports that visual impairment experts told us were most interesting for them,” Ludivine Munos, head of Paralympic integration at Paris-2024, told AFP.
For fans at home, a channel from the public TV station France Television will also be launched, which will provide 70 hours of audio description during the Olympics.
Vibrating vests are intended to support fans with hearing impairments
Another innovation on site will be vibrating vests, which will be available at the respective venues for people with hearing impairments. Movements are recorded using special magnetic technology on football fields, among other places, and then transmitted to the back of the person wearing it using vibration.
An app is used for this purpose that detects movement on the field during ball games and translates it into a vibration pattern. It is hoped that its use at the Olympics will also increase the popularity of the app.
Overall, those responsible point out on their website that special tools such as tablets and seats with a better view of the field are reserved for people with physical disabilities.
Associations welcome innovation at the 2024 Olympics
The new technologies at the 2024 Olympics are likely to be an enormous relief for those affected. “I had just as much fun as I did back then,” explains Sofiane Ahmad to the magazine “Inside the Game” after a test in France. He lost his eyesight in a traffic accident years ago.
“It’s good for us if we, like everyone else, can experience the atmosphere in the middle of the action instead of sitting at home,” confirms Julien Zelela, director of the French Association of the Blind. It is also hoped that it will be expanded to include other sports and competitions in the future.
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