Fans of all ages and regardless of their disability or differences should be able to come together online as a community to share their passion for football.
Football is a global game and the central hub to bring everyone together is a club’s website. These websites provide visitors with everything they need to know about a club; latest news, match reports, fixtures and the ability to purchase tickets and merchandise like replica kits via the online stores.
Unfortunately, it’s an issue that many disabled football supporters have to deal with, inaccessible websites. To allow everyone to engage with their favourite clubs and players, football club websites need to be inclusive by providing accessibility support.
Globally there are an estimated 285 million people with a visual impairment of some kind and around 10-15% of the world’s population has dyslexia. In the UK alone, there are 1.5 million people with a learning disability and 4.2 million people who have English as a second language.
This makes assistive technology all the more important to support fans online to access content in a way that works best for them.
Kick It Out is English football’s equality and inclusion organisation and disability inclusion is central to their work. To support people online Kick It Out offers Recite Me.
Recite Me is award-winning software that allows Kick It Out’s users to customise the website in a way that works best for them This is particularly important for disabled people or people who speak English as a second language to access vital equality information and resources.
Keeley Baptista, Kick It Out’s Head of Partnerships, is delighted to be using Recite Me on the organisation’s website and believes it marks another step forward for Kick It Out’s equality work.
Keeley Baptista, commented, “Recite Me is a pioneering software tool that will significantly improve the accessibility of our website.
“Disability inclusion is a central part of our work and we are excited to be working more closely with the team at Recite Me going forward as we aim to break down the barriers for disabled people in football.
Keeley added: “We hope that football clubs and organizations see the benefit of the tool for their customers and supporters and look to address accessibility improvements on their websites too.”
Ross Linnett, Recite Me founder and CEO says, “Recite Me are proud to partner up with Kick It Out to provide online assistive technology to support people with disabilities.
“The partnership will help to increase diversity and inclusion online as well as on the pitch.
“Allowing people to come together to share their passion for football online is a key goal for Recite Me. By providing a wide range of accessibility tools such as the screen reader and on-demand live translation, fans of all ages, regardless of their disability or differences can engage with football news and events online hassle-free.
“Our partnership will also create awareness aimed at helping clubs and other sporting organisations to develop their online presence, in order to better support fans who can often face barriers accessing online content.”
100’s of organisations already use Recite Me to make their websites more accessible for website visitors. To find out more or to book your free trial please contact the team.
