Tablets, headsets, audio description… For the visually impaired, the Paralympic Games are adapting – Libération

Several measures have been put in place to allow the visually impaired and blind to take part in the Games. “Libé” discussed this with the main people concerned, who are happy to be able to enjoy the events too.

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In front of a small wooden shed, the kind you set up at Christmas markets, about ten people are queuing up, cane in hand this Sunday morning. Behind the counter, two Paris 2024 volunteers are handing out large white and blue tablets on which a goalball field is drawn. “It’s not complicated, explains one of them. A small ball will move on the tablet and you follow it by touch. You just have to ask someone which team is on the left and which one is on the right. And if there is a goal, the tablet vibrates. Is everything clear?

Laurent and Suzanne agree. The fifty-somethings, both blind, are regulars at sports competitions. But normally, at each event, they tinker as best they can. Usually, it is their daughters, Céline and Caroline, who describe to them what they see. “For example, if we go to see athletics, I tell them who is in which lane, if someone is late, if there is a fall… I have to choose the information because I can’t describe everything,”