PARIS (AP) — As Paris shines under the global spotlight of the Olympic Games, technological innovations are enabling people with visual impairments to take it in.
Each Olympic venue is a mosaic of singular stories, from the athletes to the spectators. Even before the Paralympic Games begin later this month, Paris 2024 organizers strove to make the Olympics more accessible.
“For these Games, we wanted to carefully listen to the ecosystem of people with disabilities,” said Ludivine Munos, a former Paralympic swimming medalist responsible for integrating accessibility as part of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee.
“Our goal is precisely to provide an experience with as few barriers as possible. People with disabilities have specific needs and sometimes find it difficult to understand what is happening on the field,'' she said.
A standout innovation is the Vision Pad, a tactile tablet designed to add another layer of interaction for those with visual impairments. It features a moving magnetic ball, representing the ball in play on a court or a field. Users run their fingers across the tablet to keep track of the movement of the ball.
With a whole basketball court at her fingertips, Olympic enthusiast Zoé Thierry described her first experience with the pad, at the Bercy Arena for the Greece-Germany quarterfinal on Tuesday: “This time, we are truly immersed in the action, we can really follow the ball.''
“In addition to the great atmosphere, of course, because I could always feel that. But it’s a great addition to the game,” she adds.
A total of 45 tablets are available, and can only cover ball games for now. It's being used for basketball, soccer and rugby at the Olympics and four sports at the Paralympics. ‘’It would be good if we had it for individual sports too,'' Thierry said.
Other new technologies also address visual impairments. One app helps visually impaired people find their seats in trains. Another is the Low-Vision Helmet, which allows users to zoom in on an athlete, race or action. Visually impaired individuals wear it on their eyes, like a VR headset. It's connected to the venues' broadcast feed, letting users switch between live-action and televised coverage, Munos explains.
In France’s largest stadium, the Stade de France — where the thrill is the strongest but the athletes look the smallest — the Low-Vision Helmet really comes into its own.
French visitor Florian Trichaud, who has visual impairments and considers sports his “drug,” wore the helmet for a track and field final in the Stade de France on Thursday. A big soccer fan, he usually likes going to sporting events ‘’just for the atmosphere and the fan culture.''
“With this headset, I was able to experience things visually, and it’s hard to realize, but being able to see the elements and feel included makes a real difference for us,” he said.
Trichaud noted a few limitations: “The resolution could still be improved, and the headset can be quite tiring for the eyes.”
The products were designed by companies including GiveVision, Touch2See and Ezymob, which partnered with the Paris 2024 organizing committee to introduce the technologies to the Olympic realm.
Another vital technology for visually impaired people is audio description.
“The aim is to describe everything happening in the stadium in the smallest details — movement, atmosphere, colors, action,'' said Adrien Izard-Le Calvé, a French audio descriptor.
Seated next to his colleague Joana Wexsteen, the two are the eyes of the Stade de France. Audio description echoes around 15 sports at the Paris Olympics. While the technology was available for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, this is the first time its used at Olympic sporting events, she said.
“Being able to assist people with visual impairments is incredible. What we are experiencing is exceptional, and helping these individuals feel as included as anyone else is crucial,'' Wexsteen said.
Anyone with visual impairments can connect to the audio description broadcast on the Paris2024 Olympics app, and with a pair of earphones follow the game.
Organizers worked to make sure people were aware the technology was available and make it easy to access. They “sent emails and communicated with all ticket holders, including people with disabilities, to inform them about everything available during the Games,” Munos said.
There is still work to be done to allow all people to enjoy the spectacle of buzzer beaters, a 6.25-meter pole vault, aces, knockouts, sprints and butterfly strokes. But Paris organizers are trying to set a precedent for inclusivity and accessibility at big sporting events.
“I think it’s essential for the sake of legacy, that it continues for future games. One of the biggest disappointments would be if we made progress in these games only to regress afterward,” Wexsteen says.
For more coverage of the Paris Olympics, visit https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games.
FILE - A view of the Stade de France stadium, Tuesday, June 25, 2024 in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs is due in court Tuesday on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. An indictment says the music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.”
Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs, 54, would plead not guilty and that he would “fight like hell” to get his client released from custody.
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Prosecutors say the violence Combs exacted on his victims was so extreme that he should be denied bail.
In a detention letter written for the federal judge overseeing the music mogul's case, prosecutors described how Combs would assault women, employees and others “by throwing objects at them, choking them, pushing them, kicking them, and slamming them against walls and on to the ground.”
The letter says the violence was sometimes spontaneous and sometimes premeditated, including “resorting to kidnapping and arson when the defendant’s power and control were threatened.”
Prosecutors say Combs’ “disposition to violence cannot be reasonably prevented through bail conditions.”
The letter also says Combs should be denied bail because he has already reached out to potential witnesses in the case and that further attempts at witness tampering are likely.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams says Combs did not act alone.
During a news conference Tuesday, Williams said Combs’ security and household staff, as well as operators high up in the music industry were complicit. Williams says they cleaned up damaged hotel rooms and "delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers.”
Williams says the investigation is ongoing, and is urging "anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, whose office is bringing the case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, says the music mogul led a criminal organization that carried out kidnapping, forced labor and sex trafficking, among other crimes.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Williams said authorities will seek to have Combs detained while he awaits trial.
He spoke before a display board showing images of some of the items recovered in searches of Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March, including AR-15s and a drum magazine containing dozens of rounds of ammunition. He says agents also seized electronic devices that contain images and videos of sexual encounters.
Williams says: “Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and the obstruction of justice.”
Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has said he will fight to keep his client free. He says Combs is innocent and will plead not guilty.
Comb’s former longtime girlfriend, whom he was seen attacking in a March 2016 security video, has declined to comment on the federal case against him.
Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for the singer Cassie Ventura, said in a statement released before Combs was due to appear in court Tuesday that neither he nor his client have anything to say on the matter.
Wigdor says: “We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know.”
Ventura reached a settlement with Combs last November, one day after filing a lawsuit containing allegations of beatings and abuse by the music producer.
Outside the Manhattan courthouse early Tuesday, Combs’ lawyer, noted that his client came to New York City voluntarily because they knew the charges were coming.
Marc Agnifilo said: “Not a lot of defendants do that. He came to New York to, to basically engage the court system and start the case.”
Though the indictment was not unsealed at the time of his comments, Agnifilo said they know what the charges will be and that Combs is “innocent of these charges.” He vowed to “fight like hell” to get Combs released from federal custody.
The indictment alleges Combs hit, kicked and threw objects at victims, and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. It says Combs also threw people around, choked and shoved them.
Prosecutors say his employees and associates witnessed his violence and, rather than intervening, helped him cover it up, including by preventing victims from leaving, and locating and contacting victims who attempted to flee.
The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
He’s accused of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them, and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.
Lawrence Stark, of the Bronx borough of New York, makes comments in support of Sean "Diddy" Combs, outside Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
