TACBIS presentation in Budapest ‘22
November 15, 2022
On the 14th of November TACBIS held a presentation in Budapest. The presentation used a panel of people who are themselves affected by colour blindness or have a stake in making the world a better place for people with colour blindness. The panel consisted of: Nicholas Bignall, James Chiffi, Marc Douglas, Francisca Araújo, Adam Bibbey and was led by Kathryn Albany-Ward.
Kathryn started with a direct question to Nicholas Bignall an ex professional football player. She asked him if he ever met other colourblind players when he was a professional. During the conversation with Nicholas and Kathryn another problem appeared, not only can people be colour blind, but the barrier to speak out about their own disability has a much bigger impact on their life’s.
According to Kathryn, players do not stand up for themselves enough. Adam Bibbey latched on and told that out of 180 players operating at the highest level, only 7 are colour blind (6%). This is lower than the average among people, meaning not everyone can make it to the top because of their colour blindness.
James Chiffi, who is working at Swansea, told that 1-2 players a team with colour blindness seems very common to him. He says that clubs need to adapt their environment to improve the experience and opportunity for all involved.
Marc Douglas told that there is a different route being taken in the Rugby world.
‘Over here we are educating the sport in general about colour blindness. We are even slowly getting to a point where rugby competitions have guidelines regarding colour blindness.’
The panel came up with some great ideas and gave a lot of information about colour blindness and the importance of it. Besides that they all agreed on the importance of educating the coaches in the right way, so that they can detect colour blindness and help those who need it.
With some small adjustments in the upcoming years we might be able to increase the number of colourblind people on a World Cup from 50 this year to many more in the future!
