Qatar’s World Cup is Most Suitable for Fans with Disabilities
Khaled Mohamed Al-Suwaidi, Senior Director of Partner Relations at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, confirmed that the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ is the most suitable version for fans with disabilities in the history of the World Cup, noting that Qatar has succeeded in raising global standards for access and movement during the preparation for hosting major sporting events, by including the requirements of fans with disabilities in all aspects of tournament planning and operations.
Al-Suwaidi said that the tremendous efforts made by Qatar to organize the most accessible edition in the history of the World Cup will put the organizers of the next editions of the World Cup in front of a great challenge, to reach this level of making the tournament facilities and services available to fans with disabilities, which an achievement that Qatar is one step away from achieving it during the upcoming event, which begins its competition in less than two months.
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The Supreme Committee established the Empowerment Forum in 2016, which is a platform that brings together people with disabilities and institutions representing them across Qatar and played an important role in planning to ensure the design and construction of sports facilities and infrastructure that suit all the needs of people with disabilities throughout the country.
In this context, Al-Suwaidi said in an interview with (Qatar2022.qa): “By working with the Empowerment Forum, we were keen to involve individuals from the community with disabilities, along with all relevant partners, to organize a tournament that suits their requirements, and leave a sustainable legacy for future generations,
We wanted to make sure that the tournament would make Qatar a more accessible country for people with disabilities while setting new standards in accessibility and mobility while hosting sporting events.”
In addition to cooperating with the Supreme Committee and the tournament organizers, the Empowerment Forum members worked closely with partners in the transport, hospitality, and cultural sectors in Qatar, to provide access and movement at their sites. This resulted in wonderful results that made mobility in the country accessible to all, and access to the main sites and services became easy for people with disabilities.
For his part, Mr. Ikrami Ahmed, a member of the Empowerment Forum, who is visually impaired, praised the advantages of access and movement included in the preparation efforts for the tournament in the infrastructure facilities in the country, and said: "There is a noticeable difference during the last period with regard to facilitating the access of persons with disabilities to all state facilities, the idea is receiving great attention, regardless of its cost or material return, the state has committed to implementing it as a human right, and I believe that the impact of these efforts will be reflected on the experience of the tournament’s visitors of all categories.”
In addition to infrastructure that takes into account the needs of people with disabilities; The Qatar World Cup this year will offer a set of new features that take into account the needs of people with disabilities for the first time in the history of the World Cup, where blind and visually impaired fans will be able to attend the World Cup competitions, and follow the commentary and audio description in Arabic on all World Cup matches, where they will be able to use their headphones to listen for comment The detail that will describe the events of the matches in the smallest detail.
Commentaries for people with disabilities can be heard through the FIFA app, and the service will be available in all eight World Cup stadiums.