People with eyesight defects will be able to see Euro-2012 matches thanks to audio descriptive comments. A specially trained sportscaster will describe and explain to these people everything taking place in the field, practically becoming their eyes. Each stadium will get 30 special audio earphones during the championship, and sightless people will be able to “see” football matches with their help.

Implemented within the framework of the UEFA international project “EURO 2012: Respect Inclusion – Football with No Limits”, this service is an innovation for Ukraine, but the majority of European stadiums have been providing audio descriptive comments of sports events for some years now.

“Austrian television presently provides audio descriptive comments to 17 per cent of all sports events in the country,” Austrian sportscaster Martin Zwinschenberger has said. “We regularly comment all football matches in the first division, all games of the Austrian national team and Olympic competitions for sightless people.”

“We sincerely hope that this practice will become usual for Ukraine even after Euro-2012. We are presently teaching volunteers the skills of audio descriptive comments. But it may shortly become a profession, as they will be able to help sightless people to see not only sports events, but also other socially important events,” the head of Ukraine’s National Assembly of Disabled People, Valeriy Sushkevych, has summed up.