[Special Feature: Disability and Society] A Society Transformed by Para-sports: Through Involvement with Blind Football

Image: Blind football played at KEIO Futsal Adventure (2016, Hiyoshi Campus)

As 2020 approaches, I feel that attention toward the Paralympics is gradually increasing. However, with the exception of a few sports, awareness remains low, and those interested in para-sports (sports for people with disabilities) are still a minority. Despite the efforts of those involved, the Paralympics cannot yet be said to stand on equal footing with the Olympics.

However, it is also true that the campaigns and media coverage for the Tokyo Paralympics are beginning to change. Until now, para-sports were often featured in the context of "moving stories of overcoming disabilities" rather than for their appeal as competitive sports. Recently, however, attention has shifted to the appeal of the competitions themselves, with emphasis placed on aspects such as strength, intensity, and skill as sports.

This change is thought to be influenced by a global trend triggered by the London 2012 Paralympics. The London Paralympics were evaluated as a great success with large crowds filling the stadiums, and behind that success was a campaign strategy to transform the image of the Paralympics and para-sports. A symbolic example of this is the "Meet The Superhumans" commercial produced by the British broadcaster Channel 4. This commercial emphasized the fearless and tense atmosphere of the athletes and dynamic scenes of practice and matches, while also inserting footage of traffic accidents, landmine explosions, and fetal ultrasounds to remind viewers that anyone could potentially acquire a disability. This commercial received high praise, including the Grand Prix in the Film Craft category at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and significantly influenced Paralympic campaigns following London.

One of the sports that has become widely recognized within the global trend of emphasizing competitiveness is blind football (football five-a-side), which is currently the only football event in the Paralympics. In addition to originating from the major sport of football, the fact that it is a sport well-suited for experiencing intensity, speed, and technical skill is thought to have contributed to its increased recognition.

Blind football was born as a sport for the visually impaired, and its promotion in Japan began in 2002. A team consists of four field players and a goalkeeper who is either sighted (a person who can see) or partially sighted. A key feature is that field players wear eye masks and play in a state of complete visual deprivation. The pitch is the same size as a futsal court, and a special ball containing metal fragments that jingle when it rolls is used, allowing players to grasp the ball's position by sound.

Furthermore, a caller known as a "guide" stands behind the opponent's goal to communicate the position and distance of the goal and opposing players during attacks, while the team's goalkeeper and coach use words to provide instructions on the game situation and offense/defense. In other words, blind football is a form of football where four field players with their vision blocked play by relying on auditory spatial perception and communication.

In international matches, only totally blind (B1 class) athletes can participate as field players, but in domestic matches, sighted or partially sighted players wearing eye masks can also participate up to the number specified by the tournament rules.

Most sports for the visually impaired incorporate rule-based innovations to separate the areas where opposing players move, preventing injuries from contact or collisions. In the case of blind football, a rule is established where players entering a defensive position must shout "Voy!" to make their position clear. However, as in regular football or futsal, intense contact play is often seen as players fight for the ball. Furthermore, the skillful dribbling, passing, and shooting performed while vision is blocked overturns the image of "rehabilitative sports tailored to disabilities" and provides a fresh surprise to first-time spectators. Blind football has an aspect of changing the image of visual impairment, which people who usually have no contact with the visually impaired tend to assume is unrelated to active sports.

I believe the greatest value of being involved in para-sports lies in the ability to recognize the existence of people different from oneself and understand the importance of mutual cooperation.

As was the case when I first encountered blind football, the initial hook that attracts many people to para-sports is the "strength and challenging spirit" of the athletes. By experiencing intense play and high athletic ability and mental strength, the vague preconceptions and biases held about people with disabilities are overturned. This is likely the same intention behind the London Paralympic campaign mentioned earlier.

However, as one deepens their involvement with para-sports, they will notice another side. Although athletes aiming for the Paralympics vary in terms of whether their disability is congenital or acquired, as well as its type and degree, many of them are people who have experienced frustration, sadness, and despair, yet still strive to move forward in life. There is much to learn from the way they believe in possibilities rather than being trapped by what they have lost or cannot do. However, they are not "superheroes" providing inspiration; they are individual human beings who waver, suffer, and worry between dreams and reality, both in competition and in daily life.

At first, people may feel guarded, not knowing how to interact with athletes with disabilities, but over time, they will be able to interact naturally. Through repeated interaction, if one understands that despite being powerful and attractive individuals, they have things they cannot do, things they struggle with, and things they worry about, one can gain a balanced understanding of the "strength and weakness" that coexist within a single human being. This will lead to a positive awareness of both the "strength and weakness" within oneself, rather than a simple binary opposition where strength is good and weakness is evil.

Rather than "strong able-bodied people" unilaterally supporting "weak people with disabilities," realizing the obvious fact that everyone has things they "can do" and "cannot do," and building relationships to cooperate toward a common goal, serves as an entry point to knowing the appeal of the sport more deeply and opening up a new worldview.

Of course, athletes aiming for the Paralympics are only a small fraction of people with disabilities. Far from playing sports, there are people who cannot move their bodies at all or who have difficulty communicating. However, realizing the meaning of viewing both strength and weakness positively through involvement in para-sports will serve as an opportunity to look again at the existence of people with disabilities other than para-athletes.

The daily lives of university students are confined to an extremely narrow range. The scope of their interactions is mostly limited to the same generation attending the same university in classes or club activities, and their only contact with other generations might be supervisors at part-time jobs or internships. With more than 70% of Keio students now coming from the Tokyo metropolitan area, most students live in an extremely homogeneous world from the perspective of society as a whole, spending their daily lives with almost no contact with so-called "social minorities," including people with disabilities. Considering that this is likely one factor creating indifference toward social issues and unconscious bias, it is necessary to increase opportunities to shake up the image of "people with disabilities" or the "socially vulnerable" and recognize the importance of interacting with them as individuals with unique personalities.

Para-sports, including blind football, have a role to play in providing a place where the student generation can concretely imagine a society where they live mixed with "others different from themselves." While taking advantage of the momentum of the Paralympics, I want to continue the challenge of involving the younger generation so that it does not end as a transient interest.