SportsTech Allstars for August: Accessibility & Inclusivity through SportsTech
Podcast episodes with SportsTech startups that help the differently abled enjoy their favourite sports.
For the month of August, we focused on sports startups that are paving the way for fans and athletes with different abilities to access, participate, and enjoy sports just like anyone else. Here’s a recap of our Accessibility & Inclusivity through SportsTech month where we spoke to innovators who are changing the game for the differently abled.
We highlighted three solutions that are leveraging the power of tech to make sports more accessible and inclusive for all:
Accessibility & Inclusivity through SportsTech
ALI JAWARD, CO-FOUNDER — ACCESSERCISE
Ali Jawad, Britain’s world champion Para-Powerlifter, (4 time Paralympian) and the Co-Founder and Director of Accessercise talks about his journey as an athlete from winning a silver medal at the Paralympic Games in Rio to co-founding Accessercise. He talks about the need to create a diverse, supportive and passionate community around fitness and discusses his own personal challenges with establishing brand presence in an oversaturated industry, where 70,000+ fitness apps exist but none cater to the disabled community.
Accessercise is the world’s first fitness app exclusively designed for people with impairments. They aim to empower, guide, and educate disabled people’s journey into living a healthier and fitter life by making informed decisions based on their impairment, and giving them more access to exercise.
#MakeTimeToAccessercise
ELODIE DRAPERI, CEO & CO-FOUNDER — GIVEVISION
Elodie Draperi, CEO and Co-Founder of GiveVision talks about her foray into social entrepreneurship and the early foundations of GiveVision. She discusses the crossover between smart glasses and people who are visually impaired, and how that led to the early inception of the GiveVision Headset. She also explains the application of this technology to help their user base access information in everyday life.
GiveVision has recently partnered with Crystal Palace in Football and Wimbledon in Tennis to improve the match-day experience for people with sight loss. They’re looking to partner for the Wheelchair Rugby World Cup and have big plans for Paris ‘24.
GiveVision enhances the remaining sight of people with sight loss, allowing them to see live events through a headset which is personalised to account for their own visual impairment. They are dedicated to making stadiums and arenas worldwide more accessible for visually impaired fans and offer seamless installation and support to venues, ensuring an inclusive match-day experience like never before.
#ABiggerVision
TIM DEVINE, CO-FOUNDER — ACTION AUDIO
Tim Devine, Co-Founder of Action Audio, talks about his diverse background in music, sound design and sports, and the confluence of those disciplines led him to co-founding a system in this space. He talks about Action Audio’s work with multiple major tennis tournaments such as the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, and more recently with the NBA’s Launchpad program and more.
Developed in partnership with Tennis Australia and Monash University, Action Audio uses data from a ball monitoring computer vision system to emphasise key moments of play with a 3D sound design system that has been developed with the blind and low vision community.
#GetInOnTheAction
Next up
For September, in partnership with the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga and their upcoming SportsInnovation 2024 event we’re focusing on Innovation in StadiumTech.
The focus is to showcase startups and their latest tech revolutionizing the in-stadium experience, whether it is for rights holders, broadcasters, or sports fans. From interactive basketball courts to the large-scale implementation of 5G in stadiums, we’re exploring the latest in Innovation in StadiumTech.
