JudoBraille programme opens door for visually impaired martial arts training

There are things in judo that most of us never have to think about. You enter the dojo. You watch your coach demonstrate a technique. You look at an illustration. You read the requirements for your next belt examination. You practise, learn and, and step by step, move forward. But what happens when you cannot see that demonstration? What happens when the learning material you need exists, but not in a format you can use?

And can we really call our sport inclusive if a judoka can enter the tatami, but cannot independently access the knowledge needed to progress through it? These questions are at the heart of JudoBraille, a two-year Erasmus+ Sport project coordinated by Judo Club Golovec in Slovenia. 

Beyond participation

Blind and visually impaired judoka are not new to judo. They train, compete, and reach the highest levels of our sport. Yet participation and accessibility are not necessarily the same thing. A judoka’s journey is not only about training or competition. It is also about learning, understanding techniques and terminology, preparing for belt examinations, progressing from one grade to another, and gradually building knowledge, confidence, and independence.

When we started JudoBraille, we wanted to look at this journey from another perspective: not only at how blind and visually impaired people can practise judo, but at how they can access the whole pathway through it. The project brings together judo organisations and experts in visual impairment from Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, and Lithuania. Together, we are developing accessible Judo Belt Exam Guides in Slovenian, Croatian, Spanish, and Lithuanian, alongside an educational curriculum that gives coaches practical knowledge for working inclusively with blind and visually impaired judoka.

At the launch of the project in Ljubljana, I tried to put our ambition into a few simple words: JudoBraille represents the creation of equal opportunities, the promotion of independence, and proof that judo is open to everyone.” 

Nine months later, in Madrid, those words became much more tangible.

When inclusion moves onto the tatami

In September 2026, the JudoBraille partners met at the Madrid Judo Federation. There were meetings, discussions, and decisions to be made. We worked on the accessible belt examination guides and continued developing the curriculum for coaches. But one of the most important parts of those days did not happen around a meeting table. It happened barefoot on the tatami. Twelve blind and visually impaired judoka joined coaches from the JudoBraille partner countries for a practical training session led by Marina Fernández Ramírez, Technical Director and Head Coach of the Spanish Paralympic Judo Team. Among them was María Manzanero, the 2026 European Champion in the women’s J1 −52 kg category. Suddenly, the issues we had been discussing around the meeting table became very practical. Coaches had to think differently about how they communicated movement, direction, and position; how they used physical guidance without taking away independence; and how they adapted their teaching while still teaching the same judo. But perhaps the most important part was simpler: we stopped assuming and started learning directly from the people who know these barriers best. The blind and visually impaired judoka on the tatami were not people for whom we were developing a project somewhere else. They were part of the learning. They showed us. We listened. We tried. We learned together. 

This is an excellent way to transfer knowledge through practice, direct experience, and exchange between judoka and coaches. It allows our partner coaches to learn first-hand and gain valuable practical experience in working with blind and visually impaired judoka.
— Neli Lorenzo Abad, President of the Madrid Judo Federation

For me, this is where inclusion becomes real. Not in a document saying that everyone is welcome. But in what happens when everyone arrives?

The same judo. A different way of accessing it.

Creating accessible judo materials sounds simple until you actually begin doing it. It is not simply a matter of converting an existing document into Braille. Judo is highly visual. Techniques are demonstrated. Positions are shown. Learning materials contain photographs, drawings, tables, and other visual information. Making that knowledge accessible means thinking differently about how information is structured, described, and communicated. A photograph cannot simply remain a photograph. A movement normally demonstrated visually has to be communicated in another way. Information has to be accessible without changing the knowledge itself. This distinction matters.

Because the goal of JudoBraille is not to create a different judo for blind and visually impaired people. The techniques remain the same. The belt remains the same. The standards remain the same. What changes is access to them. And coaches need the knowledge and tools to make that possible.

From being present to truly belonging

Working on JudoBraille has made me think differently about a word we use very often in sport: inclusion. We count participants. We open programmes. We say that everybody is welcome. Those things matter. But inclusion cannot end at the door of the dojo. It also means being able to participate independently, access knowledge, learn, progress through the belt system, and have the same ambitions as the judoka standing beside you.

There is a difference between being allowed into a space and being able to fully participate in it. This is the difference JudoBraille is trying to address. We are still learning. The accessible guides are being developed. The coach curriculum is taking shape. There is more work ahead. And perhaps that is also what makes this project meaningful.

We are not claiming to have all the answers. We are bringing together people who hold different pieces of them: blind and visually impaired judoka, coaches, experts in visual impairment, judo organisations, and Paralympic sport professionals. The Madrid meeting showed what can happen when that exchange moves from paper onto the tatami.

At Judo Club Golovec, we have spent years exploring how judo can reach people who are too often left at the margins of organised sport. Again and again, this work has brought us back to the same lesson: People do not necessarily need a different sport. Sometimes, sport needs to remove the barriers that prevent people from accessing it.

JudoBraille is one attempt to remove those barriers. One accessible guide. One better-equipped coach. One more inclusive dojo. Because inclusion does not begin when we say that everyone is welcome. It begins when everyone can truly take part.