Erasmus+ Project

Invisible Move: Inclusion of Blind and Visually Impaired Youth Through Chess

Making Chess a Visible Path to Inclusion

Overview of the project

INVISIBLE MOVE is a 16-month Erasmus+ cooperation (KA210-YOU) uniting partners from Turkiye, Belgium, North Macedonia and Spain to expand inclusive, accessible chess opportunities for blind and visually impaired youth. By the end of the project, coaches in four countries are able to run accessible chess sessions with confidence, young participants have moved from beginner courses to an international tournament, and a written coaching guidebook plus a multilingual podcast series make the approach transferable to any club or youth organisation that wants to adopt it. The cooperation strengthens trainer capacity, transnational collaboration and sustainable, replicable models of social participation, with results that remain freely available and usable long after the funding period ends.

Key activities include an in-person kick-off in Belgium that aligns the partners on method, accessibility standards and planning; a transnational training in North Macedonia where coaches learn accessible chess methods, adapted equipment and inclusive communication techniques; local chess courses for visually impaired youth in each partner country, delivered by the coaches trained during that activity; an international inclusive chess tournament in Turkiye that brings participants together in real competition and shows what the training has produced; the creation of an accessibility-focused coaching guidebook in Spain that turns the collected experience into a reusable manual; a multilingual podcast series produced in Belgium; and continuous online dissemination and visibility actions that keep the project present between the physical events.

The aim of the project

The aim of the project is to foster social inclusion and equal participation of blind and visually impaired young people aged 13 to 30, using chess as an accessible, stimulating, low-cost and intercultural tool. Chess is one of the rare competitive activities where a visually impaired player can meet a sighted player on completely equal terms, provided the right boards, notation habits and coaching methods are in place. The project builds those conditions. It develops cognitive skills such as concentration, memory, planning and patience, it strengthens self-confidence through visible progress and real competition, and it creates community engagement across partner countries, so that participation does not end with a single course but continues in clubs, tournaments and friendships that cross borders.

Our Role

Vision Tree (Belgium) leads the digital dissemination of INVISIBLE MOVE and coordinates the podcast series "Invisible Moves", which gives blind and visually impaired players, coaches and family members a place to tell their own story rather than being described by others. We develop and maintain the accessible project website, built from the start around screen reader compatibility, clear structure and readable contrast, and we set the inclusive communication standards used by all partners, from image descriptions to plain language. Vision Tree also supports quality assurance of the project outputs, hosts and facilitates the kick-off meeting in Brussels, and opens doors towards EU networks, disability organisations and youth platforms so that the results reach the people and institutions that can actually use them.