One of the biggest losses that I have experienced after becoming fully blind is losing the ability to watch sports, especially baseball. It is just a beautiful game to watch, and I love practically everything about it, from the uniforms to the spectacular defensive plays and everything in between. Thankfully, there are tremendous radio announcers that help make the game come to life through the spoken word, but it is still not the same. I am still missing so many aspects, such as how each pitcher has their own unique pitching motion or how high an outfielder jumps to make a home run saving each and every catch. Unfortunately, these are things that cannot accurately be captured with just words and that stinks for us blind fans.

However, there is a new device that has become available at a few sport arenas and stadiums, that aims to bring back some of the connections to our favorite sports. OneCourt is a device that uses a haptic display along with real time player and ball tracking data to provide a much more immersive fan experience for the low vision and blind fan. Essentially, the device uses a large number of vibration motors to simulate the action on the field or court. For instance, in a basketball arena, a fan could feel as the ball is pushed down the court on a fast break while also listening to a live audio of the action. In the same way, a baseball fan can feel as a ball is hit to the shortstop and then thrown across the infield for an out, all while hearing the action on a pair of headphones. It sounds so very exciting to me, the sports fan, who used to follow the game live on my iPad to see where the balls and strikes crossed the plate all while watching it live on TV. This device could go a long way towards filling some of the void left by my sight loss.

I was lucky to be able to attend a Zoom meeting today with some of the OneCourt team, along with a pair of professional Beep Baseball players, and a representative from the Arizona Diamondbacks front office. They were all discussing how baseball can and should be made more accessible to the blind and low vision community and how OneCourt can help with that. Currently, the device is available to check out at the Diamondbacks home stadium this season and five NBA teams had these devices in the arena this past season. The goal is to expand these numbers greatly going forward. I am hopeful that my Texas Rangers will get on board as well. OneCourt plans to open up to in-home users of the device starting early in 2026 and I am already on the waitlist. My big takeaway from the meeting today was that there are tons of blind baseball fans all over and that there is a company working to fill the accessibility gap for those fans.

Below is a video about the OneCourt and how it works, brought to you by T-Mobile Tech Experience.