Making

|

sports

sports

broadcasts

accessible to people living with blindness or low vision

[Screen Text] Almost 300 million people worldwide are restricted from enjoying live sport.

[Audio Description] Mikey Todorovik is sitting on his leather chair.

MIKEY TODOROVIC (Born with macular dystrophy): When you have a vision impairment, you're frustrated a lot in your life without even realizing that you're frustrated because you've got to focus on things extra.

[Audio Description] Sandra Knight is sitting on a yellow couch.

SANDRA KNIGHT (Legally blind since birth): I'm not a great watcher of sport because I can't see where the balls are.

[Audio Description] Adam Fayad is sitting at home on his grey couch.

ADAM FAYAD (Diagnosed with Stargardt's disease): I've got to tolerate it and live with it at the moment until something else comes out

[Audio Description] Kala Petronijevic is sitting with her mother Jelena

KALA PETRONIJEVIC (Blind in right eye, 40% vision in left eye): So my dad has to commentate for me.

[Voiceover] To give those of us who are blind or visually impaired the ability to follow games in real time, we turned the action into sound and created Action Audio: the world first system for augmenting live sports with sound.

[Voiceover] Basically, we took the electronic line calling system used to track balls and call close plays and created a sound design system for 3D audio.

[Voiceover] The project was designed over two years.

[Audio Description] Sandra, Maurice, Adam and Kala all put on their headphones to listen to Action Audio for the first time.

KALA: What?

[Voiceover] With months of testing with members of the blind-low vision community.

[Audio Description] Maurice smiles

MAURICE: Fantastic.

[Audio Description] Adam is smiling upwards.

KALA: I don't know why, but I can suddenly see the ball.

Newsreader: Action Audio means people like Kala can follow the speed and trajectory of the ball in 3D audio.

[Screen Text] Fast Company says: “This technology could soon allow visually impaired people around the world to better experience the joy of live sports.”

[Screen Text] The New York Times says: “Action Audio makes it easier to enjoy the game alongside friends and family.”

[Screen Text] Alex Pitts, National Partnerships Manager at British Blind Sport says: “We are thrilled to see such exciting progress in making sport more accessible.”

[Voiceover] Action Audio is a first step to better access for millions of visually impaired sports fans. The world first system for augmenting live sports with sound.

[Audio Description] Mikey stops to look at the camera.

MIKEY: You can just enjoy the games so much better. And actually know what's happening on the court, do you know what I mean? I love it. I love it.

[Screen Text] Action-audio.com