Boundless sporting joy - football madness at its best!

Introduction 

The experience of attending a football match has been described by one of the experience consultants in the Boundless Sports Joy project as "absolutely awesome". The project is about facilitating the participation of people with combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblindness as spectators at football matches. But the project is also about ownership of your own rehabilitation process - what is important to me. Here you can watch videos, read and download the report and brochure, as well as find a guide with haptic signals for use in football matches.

Watch a video from the project:

Watch the video from the project:

Focus on participation and opportunities

Broad participation in all parts of civil society is important for democracy and for individuals. People with disabilities face major barriers in many parts of civil society. Barriers can include poor physical accessibility, transport, lack of information and social obstacles. 

Participation in culture and sport also means that there must be opportunities to take part in experiences by being an audience member at events. Major health benefits have been documented from this. The aim of this project has been to give people with visual and hearing impairments/deafblindness this opportunity. Grenseløs idrettsglede focuses on participation as an audience member at football matches. 

A user-driven project

The project was initiated by representatives of the target group, people with combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblindness. One of the two project managers belongs to the target group and the entire project is based on management and evaluation of the measures with representatives of the target group. User involvement is effective in ensuring that the research is perceived as relevant to the user group and that those concerned can take ownership of the projects and the new knowledge. An important effect of user involvement is the concept of "empowerment" in the broad sense of the word. Not only as a strengthening of users as individuals, but also as a group.

The project manager is Rolf Lund, a senior researcher at Eikholt resource centre for deafblind people. He has previously been responsible for completed projects supported by HLF, The Dam Foundation, Research Council of the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Research Council of Norway.

The co-researcher is Cor van der Ljicke, who has a combined visual and hearing impairment/deafblindness and is the initiator of the project. He has good contacts with user communities that will contribute important knowledge in the implementation of the project. He himself will be one of the participants in the project. Two skilled sports educators and knowledgeable employees at Eikholt will also contribute with professional expertise in various phases of the project.

Football match transmitted with all forms of communication

In the project, simulations were carried out of audience situations on the big screen, as well as participation as an audience in the stadium. Different forms of communication were tested in practice;

• Norwegian sign language
• Image interpretation with the help of roger on direct to hearing aid
• Haptic signals
• Tactile tray

In the video, you can see how Cor uses a tactile board of a football pitch and an interpreter to follow what's happening on the pitch while sitting in the stands:

In the video below, you can see how Simen can follow what's happening on the big screen with the help of an interpreter and haptic signals on his back.

Great transfer value to other sports and cultural events

We anticipate that the lessons learnt from the project will also be useful for other cultural and sporting events. By highlighting the opportunities for people with visual and hearing impairments/deafblindness, with a well-organised "grandstand", the project can provide inspiration for all sports and cultural events. It's not just football matches that need to be accessible to everyone, but we've chosen this as a challenging task to encourage solutions for everything and everyone.

Report, brochure and guide with haptic signals

The project has produced a report describing the entire process and results of the project. A brochure has also been produced, as well as a guide with haptic signals. You can freely download the PDF in the links below.

If you would like to receive this as a printed document, please contact us at post@eikholt.no.

• Professional report Boundless sports fune
• Brochure about Boundless sports fun
• Brochure, Sporting Joy without Bounds
• Guide to Haptic signals used at football matches

If you would like more information, please contact Rolf Lund by email: rolf.lund@eikholt.no

Links to other sources about the project:

At the Eikholt conference 2024, Kirsti Fylling presented her role as an experience consultant in the project and what an advisor needs to see and hear. Watch a recording of the presentation here: Eikholt Subject matter - Eikholt Conference 2024, on person-centred rehabilitation

If you want to read more about the project Boundless sporting joy, click on the link and you'll be taken to the website of the National Association of the Hard of Hearing: www.hlf.no/grenseløsidrettsglede

There is also a great article on the website of the Norwegian National Advisory Service on Deafblindness, which you can find here: - This is awesome - Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Deafblindness (dovblindhet.no)

On the Eikholt website you will find information about the crucial role of the interpreter in this project: The interpreter makes participation in cultural and sports events possible for people with combined visual and hearing impairment - Eikholt

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