National Summer Games Zug 2026: Accessibility for Live Events Starts at the Briefing

Last weekend, around 200 coaches and technical delegates from all over Switzerland gathered at the OYM Hall in Zug. The occasion: the official Coaches Briefing for the National Summer Games Zug 2026, the largest Special Olympics event in Switzerland. People who accompany, motivate, and support athletes with intellectual disabilities every day. Here, they received the latest information about the competitions that will take place at the end of May.

Accessify was there. Not on the big screen, but directly on each participant's smartphone. The solution was simple: scan the QR code, select the language, and the spoken words immediately appeared as text on your own smartphone. In real time. In English, French, and Italian. No app installation, no additional equipment, no technical hurdles.

Whether someone is hard of hearing, speaks a different native language, or simply reads better than they hear, every word of the opening address was equally accessible to everyone. In a room where people from all over Switzerland came together, this is not a given. It is a conscious decision.

Accessibility is often understood as a topic for large, public events. But the experience in Zug shows: the need arises long before the opening fireworks. It arises in internal briefings, at professional congresses, in general meetings, in other words, everywhere where people with different backgrounds come together and need to be informed jointly. The question is not whether your event is big enough for accessibility. The question is whether every person in the room can truly participate. Accessible communication should not be a privilege of large events. It belongs to every occasion, from the first briefing to the last medal ceremony.