Accessibility of Football Broadcasts on TV Research Report
This report explores blind and partially sighted people’s experiences of watching football broadcasts on TV. It investigates people’s preferences for which commentary or audio description style is enjoyable, accessible and enables the match to be followed accurately.
Firstly, the report provides some contextual information on blind and partially sighted peoples current thoughts on football broadcasts on TV, as well as how they access football matches. It then provides a discussion on the findings, before finishing with a set of recommendations to improve football broadcasts on TV. An attitude scale combining the enjoyability, accessibility and the ability to follow a match accurately was used to measure blind and partially sighted peoples experience of watching football matches on TV. From this research which interviewed 10 people, football broadcasts on TV had a score of 6.1 out of 15. The primary reason participants expressed for giving this score was that football commentators on TV do not provide enough description or detail for the match to be followed accurately.
All interviewees used a range of platforms to follow football matches. Radio was the most popular medium for following football. Some participants highlighted that this was due to the commentaries being easier to follow. Most participants had used the TV to follow games, although this was not their preferred method. Tablets, the internet and in-house stadium commentaries were also mentioned as ways football matches were followed.