Sport and inclusiveness: the “Pallacanestro Varese” club chooses the CMT audio description service to make the sporting experience accessible to blind, partially sighted and visually impaired fans. The “Connect Me Too” audio description system, born from the collaboration with AC Milan and already used in multiple football matches in Serie A and the Italian national team, will debut in the basketball championship match on Sunday 14 January.
The attention and sensitivity that the sporting world pays towards visual disabilities give rise to new opportunities for social inclusion: for the first time a basketball match will be accessible to blind, partially sighted and visually impaired fans thanks to the “Connect” audio description system Me Too” by CMT. The “Pallacanestro Varese” club has chosen to make use of it in the next match against Venezia, scheduled for Sunday 14 January.
The highly innovative service is able to disseminate hyper-descriptive radio commentary, created by a specially trained professional who faithfully reports the details of the match in the pitch and all the nuances of what is happening around, for example on the bench or in the stands, in order to provide a unique and all-encompassing sporting experience.
The inclusive audio description project was born from the collaboration between AC Milan, as promoter of the idea, and CMT as technological partner, with the aim of increasing accessibility to sporting events, in this case football, fans with disabilities.
Since 2019, the CMT technical team has been developing the technology that supports the audio description service: the platform, initially structured on radio systems, has been radically transformed and evolved over the years. Today, in fact, the service is completely digital, relies on the 4G network and is accessible by users via a smartphone and headphones/earphones. These characteristics make “Connect Me Too” particularly flexible and adaptable to any type of sport and location, from stadiums to arenas, from gyms to tracks, from swimming pools to racetracks. Not only. Audio description can cross conventional physical boundaries and reach even those fans who have remained at home.
«“Connect Me Too” is revolutionizing the experience of fans with visual impairments, first in football and now in basketball – explains Tony D’Angelo, commercial director of CMT -. Sport has the ability to unite people and break down barriers and cultural and background differences, creating opportunities for social progress. Our integrated audio description system fits into this context and responds to the needs of accessibility and inclusion, which have now become a necessity. We are proud and excited for our basketball debut. We thank “Pallacanestro Varese” for the sensitivity shown and for having embraced this project.”
«Sport is fundamental for promoting sharing, inclusion and socialization and at the same time it needs educational tools to do so. This is why we are happy and proud to be the first club in the history of basketball to proudly incorporate, in support and representation of the blind and visually impaired community, the writing “Varese” in Braille on their respective playing uniforms and to offer an integrated service of audio description to blind, partially sighted and disabled fans, because basketball represents sharing and union right from its roots and in its foundations”, declares the Marketing Director of Pallacanestro Varese Francesco Finazzer Flori.
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2024-01-14 17:35:29
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