@SpursOfficial
Friday, 01 March 2024, 11:45 |Tottenham Hotspur
The Club is proud of ‘Unite for Access’, a crusade carried out through the charity Level Playing Field that celebrates and promotes access and inclusion in sports venues.
This year’s crusade focuses on non-visual impairments, focusing on the demanding situations faced by other non-visually impaired people at sporting events. Ahead of Saturday’s game, we spoke to Dee Bright, president of the club’s official disabled supporters’ association, SpursAbility. on the importance of the crusade.
“You feel like you’re a part of it, that you’re not excluded,” Dee says. “Life is a big struggle for a lot of people, and it’s vital to feel like you’re being a part of it. “
Dee joined the SpursAbility committee 4 years ago, before taking over as chairman after the last election, but has been an unwavering supporter of the club for much longer.
“I was looking for football that I enjoyed and I saw what Tottenham were doing with Gazza and Lineker: football was great. David Ginola was also a bit silly, I’m not going to lie!
Dee lives with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare condition that affects the body’s connective tissues and affects her life.
“I’ve had pain issues in my life,” he says. I became interested in horse racing right out of school and my purpose was to become a jockey, but I spent much of my youth in physical therapy. It didn’t. ” It wasn’t until I entered osteopathy school that one of my professors found out that my knees were bent backwards. He referred me to a neurologist, who told me that I had this disease and that physical activity had the worst symptoms late for a long time.
“Constant pain is no laughing matter and you waste a lot of energy to keep your body in place. On bad days, I don’t get out of bed.
Dee’s disability is not visible, and in addition to her challenges, she faces stigma related to other people being unaware of her condition.
“It’s mentally draining, you have to fight it,” he explains. The prevailing attitude is, ‘Well, it looks good. ‘The same can be said for my daughter, who has ADHD and autism, other people look at her and say, “Well, there’s nothing wrong. “
Match days involve a significant degree of planning for Dee and her son Owen, who has Down syndrome, as she explains. “It’s tactical training to get there. When I go to watch a game, I rest two or three days before and I have to rest two or 3 days later.
“We normally arrive 90 minutes before the start and go to the 3 Points Café for some full, intelligent English or something rich, before walking around to pick up Owen’s descriptive headset from the access officer. When we arrive at White Hart Lane station, Owen’s excitement goes beyond the simple roar. He’s the first to come out of the drill yelling “Come on, Spurs!
The stadium offers dedicated tickets available for home and away enthusiasts, as well as 250 wheelchair spaces, 500 seamlessly available engaged seats and a sensory room, in the North Stand, for enthusiasts with sensory impairments.
“From the audio description to the ability to use the sensory room if you want, and the ability to bring in your advisor dog. There’s a lot going on and I know the club is constantly improving,” says Dee.
“To have British Sign Language on the big screen for the first time last year was incredible. This included other people who didn’t feel included. It is very vital that the club and its delegates recognize that there is a wide diversity of disabilities and that all of our wishes are different. He is identified as a human being, which is not the case in many places. I think that’s a big component of the problem, understanding that word inclusion and getting everyone involved. To have that representation.
2023 has been a record year in terms of participation in the Level Playing Field campaign, but the charity is looking to do more to raise awareness of all aspects of life.
“In this country, about 25 percent of the population has a disability and we don’t get taken care of. How many department stores have markets? How many sports fields don’t have the most accessible functions?
“Let’s take Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium as an example, those things have been devised from the planning phase, it’s already planned. A point game box is in a position to continually encourage the most productive practices across the industry.
For enthusiasts who arrive early to the game, they’ll be able to watch a pregame interview with Dee, broadcast live on the big screens.