Presenter

Elodie Draperi, CEO of GiveVision

Description

GiveVision has built a solution called GiveVision Live on their existing IP portfolio in wearable vision aid systems. Last year, they adapted their technology for watching sports and cultural events. It allows partially sighted spectators to actually follow live events in real-time and significantly improves their experience on site.

2 million people in the UK are visually impaired (VI), that’s about 1 out of 30. However, according to the Football Association only 1 in 3000 stadium tickets are purchased by people with sight loss. The disparity is unsurprising, considering that the only accessibility provision for the VI at stadiums is audio commentary narrated via a set of radio headphones. Since there is no ability to see the game, very few partially sighted sports fans actually come to live games. This is why GiveVision has adjusted its wearable low vision aid to be optimised for this use case: watching live events. GiveVision aims to set a new “accessibility standard” for sports and cultural venues. The team is working with different partners in the UK and France to install its equipment permanently or temporarily. The tests organised have shown promising results regarding performance and user satisfaction. Their ambition is to provide this solution during the Olympics and Paralympics.