Aston Villa and Sheffield United winners of TACBIS drawing competition
Drawings of professional footballers from Aston Villa and Sheffield United FC will be turned into Christmas lights soon. The drawings from two of the participating pupils have been selected as winners of the ‘Shining a Light on Colour Blindness’ competition. The winning drawings will be revealed on Colour Blind Awareness Day (6th of September). The TACBIS project consortium has organised the unique drawing competition for children across Europe. The aim of this campaign is to highlight the issue of colour blindness from the viewpoint of a child, for whom drawing can be a challenge if the pencils/pens/markers do not have the colours written on them and to bring colour blindness to the attention of the participants, their parents, as well as club and foundation staff members. TACBIS, in partnership with the winning clubs and sponsor Blachere, will create a Christmas light of the winning design.
300 million people suffer from colour blindness worldwide
Awareness-raising initiatives such as the drawing competition are important as Colour blindness or Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD) as it is technically called, is one of the world’s most common inherited conditions and can impact fans, as illustrated above, and the performance of players, coaches, and referees from grassroots to the highest professional level. Approximately 1 in 12 men suffer from colour blindness, and 1 in 200 women, amounting to a worldwide colour blind community of over 300 million people.
To address and raise awareness of the impact of colour blindness in sport, the European Union has provided funding for the Tackling Colour Blindness in Sport or TACBIS project, which consists of a consortium of partners from across the footballing world, to launch this programme with the support of UEFA and the English FA. High profile ambassadors such as Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes and Jéssica Silva have already raised awareness for and promoted colour blind friendly sport initiatives for last year’s edition of Colour Blind Awareness Day.
#TACBIS – Get involved
Support us on Colour Blind Awareness Day! Download our Supporter’s Brief here.
The new TACBIS project website will serve as a knowledge hub where players, coaches, fans, and organisations can find free resources, read the results of latest research, check related news and connect with project partners. The TACBIS project partners invite everyone to test their knowledge on colour blindness in a dedicated quiz. Do you know which Danish footballer revealed via a radio show that he is colour blind? Additionally, look out for the videos and photos from leading ambassadors and FAs on social media, and get involved yourself by sharing experiences and content with the hashtags: #ColourBlindAwarenessDay #TACBIS, #1in12men, #1in200women.
