Agreement with the Catalan Association for the Promotion of Deaf People (ACAPPS)

The institutional vice-president of FC Barcelona, Elena Fort, and the president of the Catalan Association for the Promotion of Deaf People (ACAPPS), Àngels Videla, have signed a partnership between the club and the charity organisation. The event was part of Diversity Month this May, and is one of the many initiatives being promoted by FC Barcelona's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department.

The purpose of this agreement is to lay the foundations for collaboration to develop initiatives, projects and services in the field of accessibility for deaf people and their families.

Commitment to technology to improve accessibility in both physical and digital spaces for deaf people will be one of the key points of the agreement, which will include subtitling of audiovisual content and even live subtitling of club events, among others. Training and job placement will also be a priority aspect of the arrangement.

ACAPPS is a non-governmental non-profit organisation that aims to represent and defend the rights of deaf people in order to achieve their full participation and accessibility in all areas of life.

The reality in numbers

Catalonia currently has 272,300 registered people suffering some form of impaired hearing, according to data from the National Health Survey (INE). And according to the Commission for the Early Detection of Hearing Impairment, in Spain 2,500 families have a deaf newborn son or daughter every year.

This data provided by ACAPPS shows that there is a clear problem, and with the club being so dedicated to the recognition of diversity in all its forms (gender, sexual, functional and cultural diversity, among others) and in all environments, this is another area where it wishes to get involved and offer a platform for visibility.