The goal is accessibility and advocacy
By Arnold R. Grahl
Three players kick a soccer ball around the pitch listening for the rattle it makes while it rolls. As they run, they repeat the word “voy” (Spanish for “I’m going”) to avoid collision. The players have varying levels of visual impairments, so they wear blackout masks over their eyes to put them on even footing. Behind the goal, a sighted person calls out directions. Suddenly, a player breaks free and kicks the ball toward a corner of the net, where it sails past a sighted goalie.
“The thing I like most about blind football is when I score because our goalies are all sighted,” explains Gad Reuben Tumusiime, a member of Strong Spirits, a team in the Blind Football Uganda league. “Blind football is actually a stepping stone to our freedom as disabled people in the country because everyone is surprised when they see us play.”
Jagwe Muzafaru, a member of the Rotary Club of World Disability Advocacy, created the football organization in 2021 to give players a sense of independence, raise their profile, and provide them new opportunities. [...]