The calm and quiet is a stark contrast to the roar of a World Cup stadium — but it is quite deliberate.
For the first time at the tournament, special “sensory rooms” have been created at three stadiums in Qatar where children, teens and young adults with autism or similar disabilities can retreat when the big-match atmosphere becomes too much.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said that Qatar 2022 will be “the most accessible World Cup ever.” There is also to be commentaries for the blind and unprecedented measures to get fans with disabilities into stadiums.
Photo: AFP
There has been a “massive” response to the sensory rooms, said Alison Saraf, who is part of the project as the founder of a shop to help autistic children in Doha.
Organizers say that nearly all of the special stadium and room tickets have been sold.
For many people with autism, noise is an agonizing experience.
The rooms are intended to help those who could become “overwhelmed,” Saraf said.
“It would be a calm place for them to kind of relax and regulate,” she said.
The cacophony from fans is an integral part of soccer, but these World Cup oases of calm can be found in al-Bayt Stadium, the venue of the opening match, Lusail Iconic Stadium where the final is to be played on Dec. 18, and Education City Stadium, which is to host eight games.
There would be six other rooms near fan zones around Doha.
The rooms can accommodate at least 10 people and have big tinted windows where the fans can watch events in seclusion.
At al-Bayt, there is soft lighting from fiber optical and LED lamps, colored mattresses and sensory rugs that offer a range of distracting, tactile fun for children and young people for whom a soccer match might have long been out of bounds.
There are also noise-canceling headphones, padded blankets to roll around on, and anti-stress toys.
“Sometimes it gets a bit too overwhelming within the stadium bowl,” said Hala Ousta, FIFA’s diversity and accessibility manager.
Specialists want the spectators to spend as much time as possible in their stadium seats.
“It’s not meant to be necessarily separation and a ‘them and us’ situation,” Saraf said. “It really is to let them experience the game. And then for them to slowly become used to it.”
The English club Watford opened a sensory room in 2016 and others have followed suit. Discussions started in Qatar in 2016 and sensory rooms were opened for the FIFA Club World Cup in 2019 and the Arab Cup last year.
“This is the first time it’s happened in a World Cup tournament,” said Mark Dyer, who is in charge of accessibility for Qatar’s organizing committee.
The tournament, which starts on Sunday when Qatar take on Ecuador, would also feature an app where visually impaired fans can listen to commentaries in Arabic and English.
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