Premiere in Chur: accessify deployed for the first time for the Special Olympics World Winter Games 2029

130 participants, keynotes, workshops, and an open dialogue on inclusion. And at the heart of it all, a premiere: for the first time, all attendees could follow the spoken content of an event surrounding the World Winter Games 2029 accessibly on their own devices. Live audio, speech-to-text, directly to their smartphones. Without installation, without detours.

What might seem like a technical detail at first glance is, in reality, a paradigm shift: accessibility not as an afterthought, but as an integral part of the event experience, from the very beginning. A symposium that doesn't just discuss inclusion, but lives it. The World Winter Games Switzerland 2029 Symposium brings together experts, organizations, affected individuals, and committed people to advance preparations for the second-largest winter sports event in the world. Following the kickoff in 2024 and the second edition in 2025, the third symposium was again held at the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden (FHGR) in Chur, one of the official partners of the Games.

In March 2029, around 2,500 athletes with intellectual disabilities from over 100 countries will compete in nine disciplines in Graubünden, in Chur, Arosa, and Lenzerheide. The opening ceremony will take place in Zurich's Letzigrund, and the closing ceremony in Chur's Hallenstadion. It is a major event with significant societal impact, reaching far beyond sports.

This makes it all the more important that, three years before the Games, accessibility is not only on the agenda but is also being tangibly experienced. This was precisely the goal of this year's symposium.

accessify enables organizers to stream live audio, real-time transcriptions (Speech-to-Text) with translations, sign language, and audio descriptions directly to attendees' smartphones. The platform is browser-based. A QR code is all it takes, and participants select the stream that suits them best. For individuals with hearing impairments, this means: the audio signal is transmitted directly to Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids or cochlear implants. Simultaneously, real-time transcription is available on their smartphone. For individuals with visual impairments, audio descriptions can be activated. And for an international audience, translations into multiple languages can be integrated. The special aspect: the technology requires no additional hardware on-site. No special receiver, no induction loop, no fixed seats near a screen. Attendees can move freely and still have full access to all content.

The implementation at the 3rd Symposium marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration. accessify will accompany the Special Olympics World Winter Games 2029 on their journey, from the Pre-Games Event 2028 in Chur to the Games themselves.

For accessify, this milestone is also proof of its positioning: a platform that not only works for intimate conferences with 130 people but is scalable to large events with tens of thousands of visitors. The underlying technology from iRewind, the technology partner behind accessify.live, has already proven its scalability at major events like the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel.

The successful implementation in Chur would not have been possible without the Organizing Committee of the World Winter Games 2029, Pro Infirmis as an important voice for people with disabilities in Switzerland, and the students of the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden who supported the symposium. All of them deserve thanks, not only for their organizational support but for their willingness to set a new standard: accessibility as a matter of course, not as a special solution.

More about the Special Olympics World Winter Games 2029: switzerland2029.ch