For fans of live sport, the experience is as much about the atmosphere – the sights, smells and sounds – as the drama unfolding in front of them.
Think about the crack of a bat, the blast of a whistle, thump of a ball and the roar of the crowd. Would there be something missing without them? At the Deaflympics in Tokyo in November 2025, sound has been reimagined to ensure no-one misses out.
Filming recently , I learned that, at the Deaflympics, sound doesn’t have to just be something you hear. It can be something you see. Something you feel. Sometimes, something you hold.
For more than a century, the Deaflympics has been the pinnacle of elite competition for deaf athletes. Now, it is also one of the world’s most important testing grounds for inclusive technology, where engineers, designers and deaf users collaborate to redefine how sport is experienced.
