First look: For ten fans this year, the Super Bowl's biggest innovation won't unfold on the field. Instead, blind and low-vision spectators will follow the game in real time through a tactile device that transforms live tracking data into motion they can feel.
The technology, developed by Seattle-based startup OneCourt, resembles a thick tablet etched with raised outlines of a football field. Beneath those lines, sensors pulse in patterns that reflect what's unfolding on the gridiron: the snap of the ball, a quarterback's throw, a tackle, a touchdown. In the same moment, synced live audio completes the experience, bridging sightless spectators directly to the action for the first time.
The NFL, in partnership with Ticketmaster, quietly tested this system across 15 games during the regular season, including matchups in Seattle, Jacksonville, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Minnesota. The feedback was strong enough that the league approved its largest trial yet – a public debut at the Super Bowl on February 8 when Seattle faces New England.
For fans like Scott Thornhill, executive director of the American Council of the Blind, the opportunity is deeply personal. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a child, Thornhill once played sports himself. "It will allow me to engage and enjoy the game as close as possible as people who can see," he told The Associated Press.
With his hands tracing the miniature field and Westwood One's radio broadcast in his headset, Thornhill says this system gives him back a part of sports he's missed for decades.
OneCourt's hardware doesn't use cameras in the stadium – it depends on the NFL's Next Gen Stats infrastructure. Every ball and jersey is embedded with microchips streams location data via Genius Sports, the NFL's data partner. Software inside OneCourt's system interprets that data, converting spatial information into unique vibration signatures that correspond to each play on the tactile field. When a running back cuts down the sideline, users can track that lateral movement under their fingertips.
Co-founder Antyush Bollini says the leap to Super Bowl scale marks more than a technical milestone. "It's a testament to the maturity of the product and our company," Bollini noted. "Now blind and low-vision fans can use our technology in a way they deserve."
The idea traces back to 2023, when OneCourt founder Jerred Mace – then a student at the University of Washington – watched a blind person attend a soccer match and wondered how data could fill the sensory gap. Two years later, the company has extended pilots with the NBA and Major League Baseball and is in early discussions with NHL teams.
During Seattle's December home game against Indianapolis, lifelong fan Clark Roberts was among the first to test the OneCourt unit. Blind since age 24, Roberts described the synchronized haptics and real-time audio as "two wonderful things" – a rare combination that eliminated the usual delay between broadcast and live play. "Can you imagine how this can open up everything, not just football?" he said.
That sense of immediacy is crucial. Traditional radio and streaming feeds can lag plays by 30 to 60 seconds, isolating blind fans from the live pulse of the crowd. OneCourt's integration of official tracking data bypasses that gap, producing response times measured in milliseconds.
When Jacksonville fan Thomas Rice used the system, he said he could feel quarterback Trevor Lawrence's pass travel through the air and follow a running play unfold along the sideline. "It was like giving me my own pair of eyes," Rice said.
Funding from Ticketmaster covered the NFL pilot so fans could use the devices at no cost. The league's senior diversity director, Belynda Gardner, called the pilot both an experiment and a step forward. "It's not lost on us that we have blind to low-vision fans and we want to do right by them," Gardner said. She noted the league plans to evaluate the results through the offseason to determine whether OneCourt could become a permanent feature of the NFL's accessibility program.
Image credit: The Associated Press
The NFL is testing a tactile device that lets blind fans feel the Super Bowl in real time
