Football fans of all types have been locked out of grounds in Wales since March and for most that means a reliance on TV coverage or online streams of their favourite team. For the partially sighted and blind people, however, the exclusion of audio description commentators from stadia has meant a unique form of connection to the game has disappeared – for now, at least. Ollie Stockdale is one such commentator at Cardiff City and explains his role.
I am a voluntary audio description commentator for Alan March Sport in conjunction with Cardiff City FC, who began the service in 2019.
As an aspiring sports journalist/commentator, I was immediately drawn to this opportunity.
I completed an application form, was accepted, underwent rigorous training and up until March 2020 was a regular audio description commentary provider at Cardiff’s home matches.
What is Audio Description?
Audio description is a specialist form of commentary. It is a much more descriptive form of commentary compared to standard radio or television commentary.
It is sometimes found in theatres and museums but in the past decade, audio description has also been introduced into some football grounds.
Audio description exists to enable blind and partially sighted people to access sporting and live action events more fully by providing all the significant visual information that a blind or partially sighted person may need.
At a football match this could include clothing, emotions, players’ body language, position on the pitch, action off the ball and even information about what is happening in the crowd!
Why can’t blind and partially sighted people use radio commentary to follow the action?
Audio description commentary differs enormously from most radio football commentary; anyone who has ever listened to a football match on the radio will know that sometimes the commentators will be talking about themselves, their careers, the manager, the substitutes, maybe the latest player who’s in form etc.
All these things are interesting, but all the time the ball is moving!
Done well, audio description commentary’s big strength is keeping pace with the ball and being ultra-descriptive when the defining moments happen in a match.
So, for example, a blind football fan would know who had scored, how they had scored and where the ball had ended up in the back of the net. All the things that sighted people take for granted.
How do blind and partially sighted people access the service?
This service is free of charge to blind and partially sighted people. At Cardiff City, fans come to the Cardiff City stadium, collect a radio receiver which is worn on the body, that can then receive the audio description transmission on a non-FM frequency.
Blind and partially sighted people then listen to the audio description commentary through headphones, often their own (for hygiene reasons).
Most audio description commentary at football grounds is provided courtesy of Alan March Sport, the UK’s most successful commentary service for the visually impaired.
They have provided audio description for the past two Olympics and the past three Champions League finals.
Unfortunately, many football grounds are yet to provide this most valuable of services.
The grounds currently providing the service are Cardiff City FC, Wrexham AFC, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, Nottingham Forest FC, Leicester City FC, Southampton FC, Mansfield Town FC and Crawley Town FC.
Hopefully many more clubs will follow.
The impact of COVID-19
It is hard to overstate the impact that COVID-19 has had on live sport generally and audio description at the Cardiff City ground has unfortunately been a casualty.
In recent times, some clubs are providing the service online (Southampton FC, Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C and Wrexham FC), however the service is yet to re-start at Cardiff City FC.
Missing it. @CardiffCityAD @CardiffCityFC @AlanMarchSport #CCFC pic.twitter.com/VVk6VB1MKh
— Ollie Stockdale 🎙 (@OllieStockdale1) October 26, 2020
From the first day of lockdown to the present day there have been no fans at the Cardiff City ground and no audio description service, but hopefully that will change before too long.
I am very proud to be an audio description commentator. I love sport, especially football and it is so rewarding to think that, by giving up a few hours of my time on a Saturday afternoon, I can enable someone who is visually impaired to have better access at a football stadium.
During lockdown I had the chance to interview former Secretary of State, David Blunkett, probably the UK’s most famous blind football fan and a long-time user of audio descrition commentary.
He feels that audio description should be more widely available in order to give blind and partially sighted people equal access to all genres of live sport.
I really enjoy being part of the Alan March Sport team and have really missed the opportunity to commentate at matches during lockdown.
I really believe this is an important service and hopefully it won’t be long before we can start providing it again in 2021 as Cardiff City continue their season.