The pay TV channel ESPN (The Walt Disney Company) announced that it will broadcast the UEFA Champions League’s Final this coming Saturday, June 29th, in several countries in the region. For the first time, the channel will air the competition with additional descriptive audio, using secondary audio programming (SAP), with the aim of providing a more descriptive alternative narration, so that people with visual disabilities can have more features available to enjoy the sporting event which will be broadcast in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The UEFA Champions League’s Final, one of the most important sporting tournaments in European football, will take place this Saturday from 4:00 PM (ART), and will be played between Manchester City and Chelsea football clubs, at the Estádio do Dragão, in Portugal.
ESPN, who confirmed that it will repeat the initiative in future experiences, developed the experience together with entities that promote the integration of people with visual disabilities, such as the Asociacion de Ayuda al Ciego (ASAC); the Asociacion Pro Ayuda al No Vidente (APANOVI); and different referents of the sports field, such as Silvio Velo, captain at ‘Los Murcielagos’, the Argentine Football Team for Blinds.
‘This initiative is part of our commitment to offer inclusive and accessible content that can be enjoyed by the greatest number of people and families, without distinction. I want to highlight and especially thank entities and people who helped us to implement it, advising us and training our work teams. We are learning a lot from them. It is our intention to continue offering these features, with increasing frequency, in the important sporting events that ESPN broadcasts on its screens’, reported Belen Urbaneja, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, Brand Management and Diversity and Inclusion at The Walt Disney Company Latin America.
As officially reported by ESPN, the descriptive narration is an audio that aims to share with the audience more details about the players, a correct pronunciation of surnames, number and color of the shirts, gestures, emotions and provides an image of the stadium, the football pitch, the location of each action (from and where it is headed), the way in which a foul was committed, how the goals are celebrated and many other narrative elements, whose focus is to achieve a better contextualization and experience for all people and, in particular, those with visual disabilities.