Imagine sitting in the stands of an arena at a basketball game. You hear the squeak of the shoes on the court, the bounce of the ball, the clang of the rim for a missed shot, and the cheer of the crowd when the ball swooshes into the net. The public address announcer might give you some occasional tidbits about a player who scored or if there’s a foul.
Now, imagine that you’re mostly – or completely – relying on your ears to track the game. And in spite of a few random context clues, you have to lean over to your friend every 30 seconds to get an update on what’s going on.
Thanks to modern technology, a new device called OneCourt is changing the game – pun intended – for sports fans who are visually impaired. In March, I had the opportunity to attend the Orlando Magic vs. Phoenix Suns game at the Kia Center in Orlando. This was the first time I got to use OneCourt. My friend and I went to guest services to pick up our devices. They took one of our IDs and we had to return them after the game in order to get her ID back. From my understanding, the Kia Center had five devices last season and is expected to offer them again next season.
OneCourt is a startup company based in Seattle that has developed a “pad” of sorts to make live sports more accessible to fans. When using the device for basketball, it has everything on one side of the pad, including a tactile court on the righthand side and several raised buttons to the left of the court. What really makes it unique is that it provides haptic feedback through vibrations. For basketball, you can track where exactly the ball is on the court by feeling a moving vibration as a player dribbles or passes the ball. In turn, this allows you to tell which team has the ball and when a shot is attempted.
It also provides audible feedback through speech on the result of a shot, as well as whether an offensive or defensive rebound is made, fouls, and other details. An “Info” button gives the score, quarter number, and how much time is left in that quarter.
I also like the audio tutorial it offers. It walked me through all of the features of the court in terms of the location of certain vibrations and what each vibration actually means. While this is important to help users learn how to use the device, it’s also nice for those who might have less knowledge about basketball or who have never had usable vision to help orient them to the playing surface.
As for a few friendly observations, I will say it was a little challenging trying to balance the device on my lap, feel the action as it was happening, and then try to clap for a good play. Plus, the device comes with headphones at each venue where it’s offered in order to listen to the audible cues it provides. In the future, I’d probably prefer using earbuds so that my ears are less constricted in order to hear the natural sound in the arena and more easily communicate with those around me. Finally, being a big-time sports information nerd, I’d love to see it provide more info regarding players, statistics, etc. Another potential option would be to pair it with live audio description, which is something I’m advocating for at sporting events through the Audio Description Initiative.
The OneCourt device has been used for fans to track NBA, NFL, MLB, and soccer games. Apparently, the company is working on hockey as well. As a lifelong sports fan, it’s very exciting to see assistive technology like this being developed for activities like following a sporting event. I preordered the new at-home version of the device, which comes with overlays for NFL, NBA, and MLB games, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it so I can independently enjoy all of the games of my choosing alongside the sighted fans around me.