In this energized episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, his first-ever return guest, Kirk reunites with Jerred Mace, founder and CEO of Seattle assistive-tech startup OneCourt, fresh off attending a FIFA US–Australia match in Seattle where he used OneCourt’s tactile broadcast at a live sold-out stadium for the first time. Kirk narrates the experience in vivid detail: feeling the ball travel across the pitch under his hands, sensing shots go wide, and syncing to the crowd’s roar while seated beside a blind high-school student also using the device. Mace recaps OneCourt’s origin story, inspired as a UW industrial-design junior by videos of blind fans following matches through a companion’s tactile signing, and explains how the tablet-sized device translates official league tracking data into trackable vibrations on interchangeable silicone overlays, about a half-second behind live play.
The conversation covers how the technology works (a shift from in-ball sensors toward optical, computer-vision tracking with millimeter accuracy), OneCourt’s growing in-venue footprint (ten NBA teams last season, the Arizona Diamondbacks in MLB, plus soccer activations), and the new at-home preorder that lets fans stream NBA, NFL, and MLB games to their own OneCourt tablet. Mace looks ahead to OneCourt becoming a “need-to-have” accommodation at every venue, plus future use cases in gaming and blind-athlete training, and points listeners to onecourt.io/preorder. Kirk, now formally a OneCourt advisor, even pitches a strap so standing soccer fans can hold the device vertically.
TRANSCRIPT:
Podcast Commentator: Welcome to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment, and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences, and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you’re passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in with your host, Dr. Kirk Adams.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. This is that Dr. Kirk Adams, talking to you from my home office in Seattle, Washington. And I think this is my first return-guest podcast. So today we welcome again Jerred Mace, founder and CEO of OneCourt. Hey, Jerred.
Jerred Mace: Hey, Dr. Kirk. Thanks again for having me back. Super excited to be here.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Absolutely. And I am on fire about OneCourt. Because last week, on Wednesday, I got a text from Jerred that said, ‘Hey, did you see the invitation to the World Cup match?’ And I had not seen that, but I quickly searched my email, and there it was — an opportunity from FIFA to go see the US play Australia here in Seattle, and to experience OneCourt firsthand at a live sporting event. Now, I first met Jerred at an event at Microsoft — oh gosh, almost two years ago — called Seattle Disability Connect. And I had an opportunity to put my hands on OneCourt and experience tactilely a baseball game on the radio, the Mariners and Tampa. But I had not attended a live sporting event before. So I grabbed my wife, and I grabbed the Uber down to the Pioneer Square area of Seattle, and enjoyed walking through the very jovial, excited, enthusiastic crowd — quite a few Australian accents. And then we went to the guest services desk, where I encountered a blind friend named Jacob who works for both the sports stadiums here. And we checked out a OneCourt device. We were seated next to a blind high school student named Ethan. He was there with his mother, and Ethan and I sat shoulder to shoulder, both with our hands on the OneCourt devices. Of course, being several generations separated, I did have to ask Ethan for a little technical support — he showed me where the volume button was for the audio. But it was truly amazing to sit there and be so synced up with the energy of the crowd, in particular as my hands were on the device and I could feel the ball travel from one end of the pitch to the other. And as it neared the Australian goal, as the US was attempting to score — the increasing volume and excitement of the crowd as they cheered and yelled, and then the shot, and the collective groan as I could feel the ball go wide of the goal. In one particularly rousing scene, there was a shot on goal that went right over the net. The crowd moaned in despair, and I could feel the ball skip right over the goal and out of bounds. And then, of course, when the US scored our two goals, the excitement of that — the change in tone and tempo of the chanting of the crowd as the ball would change hands, as Australia might be driving toward a scoring opportunity, and then the ball would turn over and the US would be moving down the field the opposite way. And just to feel that ebb and flow under my hands while listening to the crowd and feeling the energy. And there was lots of energy in that sold-out, 66,925-capacity crowd at the Seattle Stadium. So I want to express my gratitude toward you, Jerred, and your team for giving me that opportunity. I call that a once-in-a-lifetime. And just really glad to have you back. I know the company has taken great strides since last time we talked. I put in my preorder for my device to use here at home. But for those who didn’t listen to episode one of our conversation, if you could give a little recap on the origin story of OneCourt, the path you’ve traveled so far, where you’re at now with OneCourt — where are you going?
Jerred Mace: Absolutely. And thank you for that kind introduction, and also breakdown of your experience. I can’t wait to talk more. I mean, this is the first time I’m hearing those notes from your experience last week. And it was an electric atmosphere, I think, all over Seattle, but none more impressive than in that venue. So I can’t imagine how special that was for everybody. And to be engaging with it in a new way is all the more interesting and fun. So yeah, I definitely have all my questions for you, to hear more about that. But for listeners that haven’t heard of OneCourt before, I’d love to just share and preview that. So OneCourt is a sports technology startup here in Seattle. We invented a tactile broadcast that allows fans who are blind or have low vision to experience and watch sports through their fingertips, as Dr. Kirk described in his experience. And what’s powerful about this is that it works both in venue and at home. So no matter where you are, you can always access the game. And the origin story dates back a few years now. I was a junior at the University of Washington. I was studying industrial design, and I came across a video of a blind person at a soccer match, and he was sitting in the stands with a woman who was watching the game, and at the same time moving his hands across a game board to represent the action. So it was tactile signing. It was experiencing the game in a totally different format than the ones, I think, that are popularly described. And in doing some research, we kind of found, oh my gosh, these instances of accessibility are popping up around the world, where people are just helping other people experience the game. There was another similar video out of Brazil — same thing, but this one was at a cafe where fans were cheering, and two fans were sitting across from each other and helping watch the game through tactile signing. And I think the insight from that was really, how do we scale that experience to everyone using this emerging data and haptic technology? And that’s what our company has been focused on since then. So we banded together as a group of students from the UW and formed this company called OneCourt. So we’ve been on a major journey, I would say, of development and community building. And now we’re getting to this interesting part of scaling the work that we’ve built. So yeah, I would love to talk more about any and all of that.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, let’s talk about the actual device itself. It was so fascinating to me to spend that much time at it. You’ve definitely made changes, improvements since the last time I had my hands on OneCourt, which was well over a year ago. But it seemed lighter.
Jerred Mace: Yeah.
Dr. Kirk Adams: I had never had my hands on the rubber overlay that depicts the pitch of the soccer field. But I did notice that the goal itself was very, very small, but then there was a larger representation of the space representing the goal. So I could tell where the shot went in. Good score.
Jerred Mace: Yeah, exactly. We have been playing around with what we call multi-view concepts, where we’re able to show different views of the game, not just a single plane or top-down view of the action. And to give a brief description of the device — it’s about the size of a laptop. And to your point, it has actually gotten a lot lighter, which is good. It’s also getting thinner, which I’m excited about. You can think of it like a thicker laptop that you place on your lap or on a tabletop in front of you. And on the surface, there’s a silicone mat that features the tactile graphic of whatever court or field you might be interested in. So in the case of soccer, of course, it features the goal line and the enlarged goal and the center line and the penalty box — everything. You can imagine that for different sports as well. And then what you’re feeling underneath actually are vibrations that correspond to the gameplay that’s happening live. So we work with the teams and leagues who are collecting this data around where the players are, where the ball is, and we translate that data in real time into trackable vibrations. So you can literally feel the ball stream across the field.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Right.
Jerred Mace: About a half second after it’s happening — which solves one of the biggest problems we’ve seen in this use case, which is that many people are just accustomed to reacting after the fact. Like, the crowd has reacted, and you’re waiting to kind of hear what happened from the radio or a friend or family member. And being able to just immerse yourself in the action and interpret it for yourself is, I think, what this is all about, in essence.
Dr. Kirk Adams: I recall when I experienced the baseball game — the radio broadcast — the baseball diamond was represented, but then also the strike zone. You’re talking about the multi-modes. So there was a grid representing the strike zone, so when the pitch crossed the plate, I could tell where the ball entered the strike zone — whether it was high, inside, low and away, or right across the plate. So I got that piece. And then when the ball was struck, you could trace the flight of the ball across the diamond. And if there was a runner on base, there was a vibration. I’m pretty good at keeping track mentally, but sometimes I forget how many runners are on when I’m listening to a baseball game. But I was talking to someone today about this experience over lunch, very excitedly telling them about it, and they said, ‘Is there a chip in the ball? How does OneCourt track the ball?’ And you just mentioned it very briefly, but — don’t overwhelm me with technology that’s over my head — but if you could just describe a little bit how the information actually gets from a soccer ball being dribbled down the field to my hands.
Jerred Mace: Yeah, it’s a great question. And this technology has really advanced over the last five years — ten years, really. But it’s a combination of things. It sometimes is a physical sensor that’s in the chip, or it’s embedded in the ball, or it’s embedded in the jerseys. But we’re actually seeing the leagues move away from this technology and more towards optical sensing. And it likely is going to always be a combination, because sometimes the cameras can’t pick up everything, right? But what we’re moving towards is this area where you could imagine 10 to 20 cameras around the field, all trained on the action. And they’re basically running computer vision software, which is able to pick up those details of where exactly the ball is on the field, and when. And I mean exactly — I really mean it — because it’s millimeters of accuracy, right? XYZ coordinates. You could think of it almost like a 3D mapping of the game that’s unfolding. And it’s happening so quickly that we’re able to turn that experience around into something that fans can feel in the moment. So I’d say that’s a lot of the magic, as we talked about, but that’s really how it works. It’s the underlying infrastructure, of course, that is not OneCourt’s invention. We do not collect the data. We simply translate it into a new haptic language.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Gotcha. And then — I know when we talked the first time, first podcast you joined me, we talked about some of the professional sporting franchises that made OneCourt available. And my experience at the soccer stadium was going to guest services, giving them some personal information and phone number, etc., and then being handed a tote bag with handles that had the OneCourt device and the headphones. So how many stadiums now can a blind person go and enjoy OneCourt?
Jerred Mace: Yeah, it’s a great question. It does vary somewhat by league and tournament, but we’ve seen a lot of our scale actually within the NBA. So last season we had ten NBA teams, where at every one of those venues you could check out OneCourt for free at any of the home games. So a ton of availability and opportunity for fans to just give this technology a try, because we also understand it’s a new and somewhat abstract experience that you sort of need to get your hands on to understand what it’s like. So that’s really powerful, and one of the valuable things of having scale across these different leagues. And yeah, we’re focused on broadening that impact. Currently, one MLB team, in the Arizona Diamondbacks — they’re an active club right now. We’re doing some activations for the soccer tournament that’s ongoing. And then, of course, as we head into the fall, we’re hoping to have many more NBA, NFL clubs, and so forth. So really spreading our wings across different leagues, different sports. And we’re always hearing those requests from fans as to which sport people are looking forward to next. So we get those requests quite often.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Good. Well, I grew up with sports. My dad was a high school basketball coach. When I was very young, he coached three sports — basketball, and assistant football and assistant baseball coach. So lots and lots of sports in my life. And my wife also enjoys sports. So every morning when I get up, one of the things I do is — I call it the sports hunt. So I use my accessible voiced remote control, and I look at what sporting events are going to be on the streaming service I receive, and I record particular games. And then in the evening, we usually have a game of some kind on.
Jerred Mace: I love that.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Watched an Argentina soccer match the other day; the Seattle Storm game we had on for a little bit last night while we got dinner ready. I listen to at least parts of most Mariners games, and have for many, many years. So I love going to live sports, but I’ve probably experienced 500 broadcast sporting events at home for every one that I go to in person. So I know you have a home edition, you have something coming up. I know I signed up for the pre-order to be able to have OneCourt to enhance the experience of sporting events in the home. So we’d love to hear about that.
Jerred Mace: Yeah. And your insight is exactly the insight that led us to offer this technology at home. And basically it was — we just kept hearing it from fans. People would go to a venue, have an amazing time, love the OneCourt experience, but then realize, well, I only come to the stadium a few times a year, or, if I’m really lucky, I’m a season-ticket holder. But to your point, most sports are watched at home, and being able to access sports no matter where you are is ultimately our mission. So we launched a pre-order earlier this spring, and it’s still open. We have limited quantities, of course, so people should definitely act on that. But basically, as you said, people can experience this in their homes. They can stream all their favorite sports, whether it’s NFL, NBA, or MLB games, all year round, and they can stream it directly to their own OneCourt tablet. So you could think of it a little bit differently than the in-stadium experience. That stadium experience is standalone. In this case, you’re using your OneCourt tablet and your phone to basically look up games, select games, and watch games through the OneCourt app, and it’s streaming via Bluetooth to your tablet. So you’re able to — I could imagine your sports roundup experience adapting to that well, right? Like, you’ve got a game coming up, or you’re excited about a game that’s on this evening, and in the same way that you’d select it on your radio or your TV, you just do that on the OneCourt app and you’re underway.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Can’t wait — looking forward to it. As the Seahawks go to repeat their Super Bowl run, that will be very enjoyable.
Jerred Mace: I know. I think we’re all hoping for that, at least in this area of the country.
Dr. Kirk Adams: That’s right. So I know that you have investors in the company. I don’t want to contravene any Securities and Exchange Commission rules, but are there still opportunities, if people want to invest at this stage in OneCourt?
Jerred Mace: Well, I guess that is tough to — yeah, obviously we can’t talk about any of that on this channel. But we’re always happy to have strategic conversations with folks if they see a particular way to support or help out, regardless of, obviously, any private accredited-investor engagement. But yeah, I think—
Dr. Kirk Adams: I just want to — just in very general terms — there still could be opportunities if people want to talk to you about that.
Jerred Mace: You know, we’re an early-stage startup, and we’re always looking for support. And a lot of times that isn’t investment. So I think — folks, people investing their time, their insight — there’s definitely many ways to get involved. And I just recommend going on our website, submitting an interest form, just say why you want to get in touch, and we’ll definitely field those.
Dr. Kirk Adams: And I would guess, if you are a blind or visually impaired person who loves to go to live sporting events and your local team does not have OneCourt, I bet connecting OneCourt with the public relations, guest services folks at your local sports stadium would be a nice thing to do.
Jerred Mace: Absolutely. We’ve seen it work. Fans have a lot of sway within these organizations. I mean, it’s what these organizations exist to serve. And we’ve seen very passionate fans stand up and say, ‘Hey, here’s an accommodation that’s worth investing in,’ and that’s led to really direct engagement. And yeah, of course we want to see more and more scale and buy-in. So it’s exciting.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, yeah, I am pleased to be formally engaged as an advisor to OneCourt. It’s been a great, satisfying journey so far. Where do you see things — say, fast-forward a couple seasons — where do you see things?
Jerred Mace: Well, there’s a couple things. The first is that I think we’re starting to cross this line of nice-to-have to need-to-have, and really setting the expectation that this accommodation exists for fans and is available to fans. I mean, it used to be, even a year or two ago, that to try OneCourt would be the privilege of a select few, and a select few cities, right? And I think we’re getting over this hump where we’re seeing enough adoption — where, in many more cities, many more fans have the opportunity to try the technology. And I think in the years to come, we’ll only see that trend continue. And our hope is that at every venue you walk into, you can ask for OneCourt and expect that real-time solution. So that’s what I’m excited for on the in-venue side. Of course, we see a lot of opportunities to impact fans outside of the stadium. We’ve talked about the at-home pre-order. And I think in a couple of years, there will be a proliferation of content on our app. So, more sports, more engagement — whether that’s across new leagues, deeper within leagues — there’s just going to be so many opportunities to watch sports on OneCourt. But I think, in the coming years, what I’m interested to see as well is the new use cases that come up. So gaming is maybe the one I’m most excited about, where people will be able to not just watch a game, but think about playing a sports video game, or a different type — any type of video game. Those kinds of experiences — how can they be made more accessible? And it’s something we’re working on. It’s not going to be the version-one launch, but I think soon after, we’ll be able to have and create some of those experiences — along with, what’s it like to use OneCourt as a training tool, as a blind athlete? That’s another use case we’re really excited about. So there’s tens of things we want to do, but obviously we need to stay focused and deliver our core value before we diversify.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Very good. I have one technological innovation to suggest, and that is some sort of strap, so you could hold it vertically in front of you. Because those soccer fans — they stand up during the match.
Jerred Mace: Yeah, it’s a great point.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Many, many people around me were standing. I was seated with the OneCourt device on my lap, which was great. But yeah, I can imagine myself standing with it vertically, hanging down in front of me, with my hands on it. There were a lot of people begging people to sit down, but they weren’t being listened to. So there was a lot of standing.
Jerred Mace: It kind of forces that. Yeah.
Dr. Kirk Adams: But again, back around to what we talked about at the top of the conversation — it was just a tremendous experience. Like I said, I’ve been to many, many live sporting events. To add that tactile element, where I was so much more tightly synced up with what was happening on the pitch, and could really connect the tactile to the auditory sounds of the crowd and the ebb and flow of the energy — it was really quite liberating and super fun, and looking forward to next time.
Jerred Mace: And I’d love to hear that.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. And for now, again — tell people how they can get in touch, how they can get a pre-order, how they can raise their hand to get involved.
Jerred Mace: Yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing right now. The biggest opportunity is our pre-order. So if you go to onecourt.io/preorder, you know, get a device for your home use — we’ll be shipping by the end of the year. And there’s three really strong bundles, all of which are heavily discounted. So I recommend getting in while it’s at its cheapest. So yeah, that’s my big recommendation. Those won’t be around for long. And we’re just excited to connect, obviously, with our sort of founding fans through this pre-order, and learn from them, work with them over the next year or so, and deliver as many amazing and illuminating experiences as we can. So that’s our goal.
Dr. Kirk Adams: Great. Well, thanks for joining me again. I just had to strike while the iron was hot, while the memories of being there at the World Cup US–Australia match with OneCourt were still fresh in my mind. So thank you for hopping on the podcast. And for those of you who want to get in touch with me — my website, drkirkadams.com, has a contact form and an email newsletter sign-up list. And I’m on LinkedIn every day, Kirk Adams, PhD. So reach out to Jerred and the OneCourt team, reach out to me, and we’ll talk to you next time on Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. Thanks, Jerred.
Jerred Mace: Thank you, Dr. Kirk. Till next time.
Podcast Commentator: Thank you for listening to Podcasts by Dr. Kirk Adams. We hope you enjoyed today’s conversation. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, or leave a review at https://www.drkirkadams.com. Together, we can amplify these voices and create positive change. Until next time, keep listening, keep learning, and keep making an impact.
Dr. Kirk Adams, Ph.D.
Advocate, Leader and Keynote Speaker on Disability Inclusion & Leadership
Leading the Way to Accessible Innovation
” Inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a strategic advantage. “
Institute for Sustainable Diversity and Inclusion (ISDI)
Executive Director
Strengthening individual and organizational capability for creating diverse, inclusive and equitable workplaces.
Innovative Impact, LLC Consulting
Managing Director
Impactful Workforce Inclusion Starts Here
American Foundation for the Blind
Immediate Past President & CEO
To create a world of no limits for people who are blind or visually impaired.
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