Some blind fans to experience Super Bowl with tactile device that tracks ball

A few years ago, a couple students at the University of Washington asked me to come to their campus for a visit. They gave me a demo of an early prototype they’d been working on — a haptic feedback device that could allow someone who is Blind or low vision to follow a game. The demo took video data from a tennis match and mapped it onto the haptic tablet. It felt like Pong, but they had a bolder vision — tackling fast-moving and complicated sports like basketball, football, American football, and hockey.

I immediately invited them to pitch us for the AI for Accessibility Grant Program that I ran for Microsoft. With so much focus on assistive technology to enable folks to work and accomplish common life tasks, I loved that the OneCourt team was interested in enabling people with disabilities to enjoy leisure activities like sporting events. Moreover, I saw the potential to enable Blind and low-vision parents to experience their kids’ sporting events, which could be life-changing for them.

Needless to say, they wowed both me and the rest of the seleciton committee. We funded them to expand their prototypes and pursue partnerships with different professional sports leagues, teams, and venues. They were ambitious and it’s paying off.

Fast forward a few years and they’re enabling a handful of Blind & low vision sports fans to exerience the Super Bowl in a whole new way, using their technology. It’s amazing and I could not be more proud of them.

Congrats y’all!