Marcus Ramirez has been a Suns fan for over a decade. He went to his first game in eighth grade.
"I remember that game like it was just like yesterday. As a young kid, I think that was like the most adrenaline I had run through me really fast," Ramirez said.
Ramirez lost his sight four years ago from a gunshot injury. That changed the way he experiences the world in a lot of ways, including basketball. Now, a recent invention is allowing fans like him to feel the game even if they can’t see the court.
Earlier this year, Phoenix Suns and Ticketmaster partnered with OneCourt, a company that has created a way to make that possible, to bring the technology to Suns games.
The device itself is a thick black tablet with a raised outline of a basketball court. With help from the NBA’s live data, vibrations follow the ball as it moves across the court, only a split second after it does in real time.
Ramirez is at a game to try out the invention. As he uses it, he explains that while he feels how the ball is moving, he pictures the court in his head.
"So having the vibration run through, having it on my lap, having both of my hands on the board, I can have a really good image of how the ball’s being tossed around and what kind of plays are being made," Ramirez said.
The board comes with headphones so users have the option to listen to an automated voice announce each play. It’ll say things like "Shot. Miss. Shot. Score. Free throw. Rebound. Foul. Timeout."
It’s not perfect. For example, users will hear the audience cheer before the automated voice confirms that the "shot" was a "score." But Ramirez likes it more than the alternative: a radio broadcast commentary of the game.
"Them describing it really doesn’t have like - their full image isn’t on the court, it’s really on the talking part," Ramirez said.
This is not the only way the Suns are working to make games accessible. Eric Bell is the disability services manager for the Phoenix Suns and PHX Arena.
"So I do seating exchanges for folks who use wheelchairs or have difficulty navigating stairs. I coordinate sign language interpreters for concerts and comedy shows, I schedule captioning for all of our events," Bell said.
For arena attendees with autism, Down syndrome or other sensory needs, PHX Arena offers a quiet room and kits containing noise-canceling headphones, fidget toys and strobe glasses.
"A lot of our games and events, there’s a lot of lights and lasers and fire and noise, and those are all great things to a lot of people but it can be overwhelming for a lot of people as well," Bell said.
The kits also include a double-sided emotional cue card for people who may have trouble verbalizing their feelings or needs.
"They say things like 'angry' or 'frustrated,' 'confused' or 'nervous,' 'happy' and 'calm' or 'sad' and 'tired.' It also has a list of the contents of a sensory bag so that folks can either point to what they're looking for or what they’re missing," Bell said.
Bell says making the live sports experience accessible to as many people as possible takes time.
"I think a good example is this OneCourt device where we just wait for the technology to catch up to not only the need but the demographics as well," Bell said.
Antynush Bollini, the COO and co-founder of OneCourt, agrees.
"There’s a reason why OneCourt hasn’t existed for 20 years. It’s because the technology that powers our technology didn’t exist before," Bollini said.
It all comes down to the live data.
In 2023, the NBA started using 3D optical tracking technology with cameras and sensors to track each player and the ball as the game moves across the court. The realtime information allows OneCourt to translate the game to vibrations at someone’s fingertips.
"These systems were originally implemented for things like officiating or for sports betting or analytics and player health and training, and we found a completely new use case for it. We have visual broadcast, we have audio broadcasts, and now we have a tactile broadcast powered by these emerging technologies," Bollini said.
OneCourt collaborated with people who are blind or have low vision throughout the development, testing and rollout of its devices.
"We really like to say that we aren’t designing for blind and low vision fans, we are designing with them. I think it’s so important we have representation from the community and their input along every part of the business," Bollini said.
OneCourt was founded in 2021. The company has tested its tactile devices with tennis, football and baseball games. Bollini has high hopes for the technology’s future.
"We believe at some point, it’ll be everywhere. Like you can go maybe to your kid’s little league game or go to a high school soccer game and they’ll have tracking data that could power experiences like this," Bollini said.
For basketball fans like Ramirez, the device is a game-changer.
“It’s really interesting. With all the vibration and everything being played out, I really have — I can image what’s going on," Ramirez said.
There are 10 OneCourt devices available for use at Suns games, and reservations can be made on the PHX Arena website, along with more information about the arena’s accessibility resources.
