What are Give Vision headsets and what could they mean for blind and partially sighted fans? The Level Playing Field Podcast finds out.
The charity’s chief executive, Owain Davies, visited AFC Bournemouth to speak with fans and staff at a Give Vision trial.
This follows the recent release of the RNIB’s See Sport Differently guidance, which Level Playing Field was pleased to work in partnership on and showcased best practice for how clubs can improve the matchday experiences of blind and partially sighted fans.
The podcast episode can be found here, or via your chosen podcast platform and the full transcript is available below.
Owain: Talk to me about today. What was different about this match day experience to your regular matchday experience?
Hayden: So this time I could see the ball, see the players and actually know what’s happening instead of being there and watching it and just kind of trying to figure out where it is and not knowing what’s happening.
Angela: Quite scary sitting here, not being able to see people in front of me and around me, whereas with these, it just has transformed everything.
Hannah: So we saw the trial that happened at Crystal palace, which was about six months ago, and it was something that we really wanted to make happen here at Vitality Stadium.
Stephen: Can’t beat live, can you? It’s the only way to watch football, really.
Liam: Hello and welcome to The Level Playing Field Podcast. My name is Liam Bird and I am the fan liaison officer at Level Playing Field. On today’s episode, in a moment, I will be handing over to our chief executive at Level Playing Field, Owain Davies, who is heading down to AFC Bournemouth. And he’ll be talking to people who are using a bit of kit, which is actually today’s subject matter. That kit is called Give Vision. But first I’m going to speak to Joanna, who works at Give Vision. So, hello, Joanna. Thank you for joining me. I hope you are all well.
Joanna: Yes, thank you. And you?
Liam: Yeah, I’m very, very well. it’s post Christmas and the realisation is that you’ve got a whole year, ahead of you and you can either take that positively or go, oh, my God, there’s another year ahead of me.
Joanna: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s quite nice. I’ve really enjoyed getting back into work because I think I had, a bit too much of relaxing time after over Christmas. Ate a bit too much and need, to kind of get back into the swing of things.
Liam: Yeah, it’s unusual not picking up a glass of wine at midday, I must say.
We’re going to talk about give vision and it’d be good for the listeners to know a little bit about yourself and your background in Give Vision.
Joanna: I am officially head of operations at Give Vision, but we’re a tiny company startup and it’s one of those cases everyone does a bit of everything, so kind of span over a lot of things. But my background was in football, so my main focus within Give Vision as a company is kind of the sporting environment and, bringing our headset to stadiums across the country.
Liam: If you don’t mind, can you just give us a bit more information about what Give Vision actually is?
Joanna: Give Vision is an assistive technology company. We create low vision aids. these were, ah, initially developed for people to use at home, but the technology has evolved over the last few years to serve a broader audience, and we’re now really focusing on making stadiums and venues more accessible. The technology itself is designed to benefit the low vision community, providing them with an enhanced experience. for example, over the last year we’ve seen this realized at venues across the UK and France, things such as Wimbledon and the world, para-athletics, which are both very exciting.
Liam: So we’re going to come into the technical side in a moment, but it’d be interesting to know whereabouts the inspiration of Give Vision technology kind of came from and what has developed. You’ve spoken about it going from home to stadiums. How long has that been? How long has that development been?
Joanna: A, long time. So, initially started in 2014, but the development to get the technology to where it is now really started. A couple of years ago, one of our users, a girl called Maisie, took her headset to a Spice Girls reunion tour, which I’m very jealous of, but this kind of led us to reflecting more on accessibility within these environments. And research we did showed that the low vision community are severely underrepresented, as a fan base in not just Spice Girls reunion tours, but in sporting events. The development process has kind of come from there and we’re continuously improving. We’re always driven by feedback from our trials and collaborations with venues. And, the key to all of this has been the users themselves. They’ve been the real driving force behind the technology moving to where it is now.
Liam: So let’s kind of talk about the more technical aspect of it then. So how does it actually work to enhance the visual experience during a live, let’s say, sporting events, but also for Maisie, at Spice Girls? How does that work? Talk to me like I’m an idiot. Technically, how does it work?
Joanna: We connect in with the local tv cameras, the ones set up around the pitch, and we stream that footage directly into the user’s headset in real time, which is essentially, bringing like a really close up tv experience, which a lot of the low vision community are used to having, but in the live venue, which means you don’t lose that atmosphere, which is the key thing about going to the stadium itself that you just can’t emulate elsewhere. But there’s also other settings. I won’t go into too much detail, but they allow the individual to adjust and tailor what they’re seeing dependent on their specific kind of sight loss, meaning that their experience is, tailored to them specifically.
Liam: This might be a stupid question. It’s not virtual reality. It is essentially what is happening in front of you. Correct? I’m just trying to …
Joanna: Correct, Yeah. If you’ve got low vision, often what you do is bring things closer to you. But of course you can’t go and stand on the pitch. So what we do is we bring the pitch to them and allow them to zoom in on this and play around with that image as they would like.
Liam: So, Owain, the chief executive of Level Playing Field, is attending a match day down in Bournemouth, where he will be speaking to a couple of supporters who have used the Give Vision headsets and they will talk about their personal experience. But how has Give Vision gone about kind of attaining that user feedback?
Joanna: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, user feedback, like you said, has been crucial. we gather this in so many different ways. We speak to the users before a match, during it and after the match to kind of get insight in their experience or how it’s changed throughout. we also have the incredible steering committee which is composed of members from the low vision community who we meet with every quarter. They help guide us every step of the way. we tell them what we’re planning on doing next. They help guide us towards what they feel like we should be doing next. We’ve just had such overwhelmingly positive feedback and really great support from the community and we really wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for them.
Regarding testimonial, really hard to kind of pick and choose one. I always recommend people go to our website or our YouTube and watch the many videos we’ve got. There’s one that will always stand out to me in particular, and that was from a gentleman called Stephen Anderson, who is probably one of the most passionate football fans I’ve ever met. He said to us, so the key moment I saw my first handball all with my own eyes from the other end of the pitch. You can’t put a price on that. I think it’s that kind of thing that if people hear, they’ll go, this isn’t just another useless product made by able bodied people thinking they’re saving blind people from peril. It’s actually got visual impairment at the heart of it.
Liam: Let’s get into the cost side of things. What is the cost of having a Give Vision headset – well the kit in the whole? And how do you ensure it remains kind of accessible to a wide range of individuals? So it’s not just Premier League clubs can have this, but if you’re, let’s say I’m not just picking on them, but let’s say you’re Forest Green Rovers, that’s not attainable for you because of cost.
Joanna: I mean, initially I’d like to cover the fact that, I think it’s the responsibility of clubs to provide a wide range of accessibility options. everyone should be able to attend their local club, follow a match, celebrate with friends, argue over the ref was right with their last decision. And something that I want to make clear at this point is that no, individuals with sight loss will be expected – none of the fans will be expected to pay for accessibility solutions like this. On a practical note, the input required from the clubs to implement the Give Vision system is minimal. There’s no changes to their existing infrastructure. It’s not like we’re going to come in and start knocking things down and buildings. There’s no cost associated with that. We also provide, staff on game days. We’re not taking up any more stadium staff time with extra tasks. They’re already incredibly busy themselves and it’s tailored to every stadium, to every requirement for each stadium, what they need. We’re not going to go in and say, hey, a stadium that has only at the current state five fans who would really benefit from the headset? I’m not going to say let’s put 100 headsets in there. We would love in the future that they have enough fans coming in that we would need 100 headsets. That’d be amazing. The introduction of diverse accessibility options like Give Vision goes beyond enhancing the experience of your existing fans. It broadens, that club reach. it’s particularly important given the significant underrepresentation of the low vision community and I think clubs embracing these kind of inclusive technologies sends a powerful message around equality and inclusivity.
Liam: So I suppose for me, what I’m trying to get across because people will be going, well, how much does it cost? Okay, this is fantastic. You’re selling me, this is great, but how much is it going to cost?
Joanna: Yeah.
Liam: So I suppose my question back to you really is how much is it going to cost?
Joanna: It’s really difficult to answer that question because it genuinely is completely different depending from stadium to stadium. From you’re just starting small and taking on a few headsets. If you’re taking on a lot, if your setup means that it’s a, plug and play sort of option, it’s a really simple setup. It has been a different price because we try to cater, to each individual club in a way that is affordable not just to themselves but to us as well. It’s really important for us that no one misses out just because the financial backing isn’t there.
Liam: Would you like to see government and governing bodies part fund some of these initiatives? So therefore accessibility isn’t just seen as a price point. I ask this because I think with disability it’s one of the equality groups whereabouts capital cost is a part of it. So that’s either infrastructure or tools, that can enhance a, disabled person’s match day. Would you like to see that? Whereabouts there is kind of this pool of money whereabouts clubs can apply for grants, so therefore things like Give Vision or audio descriptive commentary can be more readily available.
Joanna: Absolutely. I think you see this a lot of times, not just with the government, with accessibility. And it’s a case of people not putting their money where their mouth is. You hear over and over how important it is that we are, inclusive, that we have equality, that we make sure everyone can access things in the same way and then it’s all talk and nothing ever happens. And I also think that there’s this kind of misconception that because you hear about lots of money being thrown around within football, there’s this presumption that the clubs themselves, the stadiums have just millions of pounds sat around, that they’re sat in their chairs, in the offices surrounded by cash and they’re not spending it on something like this. But that’s really not what it’s like. Especially when you go to some of the teams, even in the Premier League that are still a lot more grassroots, like Luton for example, they’re still so part of that community. I’m, not talking about Luton specifically here, but just in teams in general. If they have that money, they spend it. They genuinely care, the majority of clubs genuinely care about their fans, about their local community and about doing the right thing and putting that work out there. But when they can’t do that, or when there’s so many different accessibility solutions out there that they have to try and pick and choose between them, I really do think the government should step in and put their foot forward and support with these kinds of, initiatives.
Liam: Let’s talk about the challenges then. What challenges have you encountered during these trials of implementing Give Vision kits, particularly in live sport?
Joanna: This is going to be almost completely opposite to what I’ve just been talking about, which is the really positive side of clubs. I mean, one of our main challenges has really revolved around lack of awareness for some clubs, I’ll, ah, stress it’s just, some, some venues and clubs we have had clubs tell us they have little to no visually impaired fans so they just don’t need technology like this. And at the same time we’ve been in contact with fans from those clubs who have low vision. So, I mean, education is a huge part of everything that we’re doing. We’re always trying to raise awareness, and always trying to make a difference in that way. The end goal isn’t necessarily just to make sure that the Give Vision headsets are in every stadium, even though that would be absolutely amazing, really the end goal is to make some sort of impact or difference or bring some sort of level of education that wasn’t there before.
Liam: What are the plans then to kind of further advance or add additional features to the give vision technology? I mean, how do you foresee the next 5-10 years?
Joanna: That’s an exciting question. As a tech company, we’re continuously evolving. I don’t see there’s going to be any time where the system will ever be in its final form. in fact, this week I just tried out our most recent battery saving feature to test it out, but we’re always taking on feedback and finding ways to enhance and improve the future is very, very exciting. We have a lot of events coming up this year, unfortunately, none of which I’m allowed to officially talk about yet. But I think next five or ten years it would be, something where any event space you go to, any sports venue you go to, it’s just part of an accessibility option and if that’s the option that someone so chooses to have, they could just rock up on the day, ask for a headset, go and use that to watch the match and then leave at the end.
Liam: So if any club is listening or any organisation’s listening and want to kind of know more about Give Vision, where can they go?
Joanna: they can go to givevision.net or you can find us on all of the social medias, under Give Vision as well.
Liam: Joanna, thank you. Thank you so much for your time. I’m now going to throw it over to Owain, who I believe is talking to a member of staff at AFC Bournemouth.
Owain Davies speaks AFC Bournemouth fans and club staff on mathday
Owain: First, if you could just introduce yourself and what you do at the club, please.
Hannah: Yes, so my name is Hannah. I’ve worked at the club for a year and a half as their head of EDi and engagement. So making sure that everyone can access our football club in the same way as everyone else.
Owain: Brilliant. And today’s match day. Why is this different? Ah, for the disabled fans and the kind of the initiative you’ve been kind of overseeing today.
Hannah: So we’ve been trialing some headsets today with a company called Give Vision. they ensure that our supporters with visual impairments are able to access and see the game in the same way as our other supporters. Obviously really impactful for the supporters that have used it, but also a bid for us to try and make sure that as a stadium, we’re as accessible as we possibly can be.
Owain: How did this kind of initiative kind of come about and how did you kind of consult with disabled fans in ahead of this, kind of experience? And what will you kind of look to do after this as well, to kind of be able to drive the standards going forward?
Hannah: So we saw the trial that happened at Crystal Palace, which was about six months ago, and it was something that we really wanted to make happen here at Vitality Stadium. In terms of consultation with supporters. We’ve worked with our disabled supporters’ association, but also with our disability programme within our community sports trust to try and establish how many people within our stadium could benefit from something like this and make sure that we’re engaging them in the things that we’re doing.
Owain: And when you’re looking at the – or speaking to the fans today, it was amazing to see a lot of the smiles and the faces, but you must be really pleased with a lot of the feedback that you’ve had and about the kind of their experiences. Do you want to share some of those experiences that they may have shared with you?
Hannah: Yeah, of course. So we had some fantastic experiences today. Hayden said that it was the first time he’s ever been able to see a goal properly. And I think, all the work that we do around accessibility day to day, that is everything that we’re trying to work towards is to make sure that people can come and watch the game in the same way as you and I can. The other supporter, Angela, she said that it was just amazing. It’s the only time she’s been able to sit and watch the whole game. And I think working within accessibility for quite a long time, moments like that are the things that we’re really hoping for and we want to make sure that we do as many of them as possible.
Owain: And next steps or looking ahead in particular, maybe with this or wider from the board, what are you hoping that this kind of does for enhancing the match day for disabled fans and blind and partially sighted fans?
Hannah: I’m hoping it is an opportunity for people to realise as a club and as the Premier League, we’re trying to make sure that we do as much as possible to make sure that sport is accessible for all. for us as a club, it’s hopefully something that shows that we’re trying to be more proactive in making sure that we’re engaging in new technologies that are out there to make sure our sport is accessible and that people feel included in our stadium.
Owian: Brilliant. Thank you very much.
Thank you to Hannah for speaking to me. Now let’s talk to a supporter named Angela who is one of the supporters using the headsets for today’s game.
Owain: Angela, what does it mean about having something such as this service, for you to come and watch live sport?
Angela: It’s amazing because I haven’t been to see Bournemouth for over three years because my eyesight’s deteriorated so much and now glasses don’t do anything and I’m registered blind. I have got a little bit of vision and the, Give Vision specs – headset, they just make that little bit of vision so good. They really sort of emphasize everything that you can’t usually see that well, it’s usually blurred but it really puts it in focus. And I can’t believe that I’ll be able to see any of the game, because before it’s just a green blur of a pitch. So it’s amazing and just trying them out before the match, I can see my guide dog 100 times better than I’ve ever seen him before. So I’m really, really hopeful that it’s going to be brilliant.
Owain: And you mentioned before that you’d, stepped away from coming to watch and to kind of experience live sport. But you’ve made the decision to kind of come back. What kind of prompted that? What was the kind of rationale? Why did you step away to kind of start off with and kind of what made you want to come back?
Angela: I suppose the reason was I just couldn’t see and it wasn’t a great experience. So it was easier for me to stay at home and listen to the radio because it gave much clearer picture than actually coming to the football. And also it’s quite scary sort of sitting here, not being able to see people in front of me and around me, whereas with these it just has transformed everything. So, yeah, I’ll be coming back if I can get a ticket.
Owain: And yeah, you’ve travelled from quite a way to come here today as well. So it kind of obviously means quite a lot that Bournemouth are doing this and Give Vision have given the opportunity for you to come and watch and experience this live sport. So it’s something that, if you were speaking out to kind of other fans that had this kind of provision in place who might be sitting on the fence, what would you kind of say to them? What about your experience?
Angela: I’d say definitely give it a go if they have the Give Vision specs here. It’s just so amazing and it just takes you back to when you had better vision. So it just makes it so much easier and the experience should be how it was, which I’ve really missed. Live sport just didn’t have it for me, but hopefully this is my way back in.
Owain: And the last one for me, can you just kind of give me a bit of a rundown or how you use it? Kind of what you kind of experience, what it is maybe kind of actually the physicality of what you’re actually doing, what you’re putting on. Just a bit of an explanation, an overview of that, if you don’t mind.
Angela: Yeah, so, it’s like a giant pair of goggles on a headset. So you put it on, it’s got a focus button so you can whizz it around. And so the little bit of vision that I’ve got left, usually it’s very blurred, but with these you can keep focusing and focusing till you get the right, till you get it in focus. There’s also a zoom in and a contrast button, so you can zoom in, get the focus in and get the contrast up. And for me that’s really important because once it’s a little bit dark and the sun, like now is really gray to me. But by putting the contrast button on the headset, it brightens it up. It’s like it’s a sunny day. And for me, that’s not the same of all visual impairments. But for my vision, I need brighter lights. I know some people get dazzled by them, but for me it’s really good. So to be able to put it up to a bright setting is amazing. But I imagine you can also put it on a dark setting if your vision is the other way. It’s astounding. When you put it on, you can’t help but say wow and just like, keep going, wow, this is amazing. This is amazing because it’s just like someone’s restored some of your vision, which is unbelievable.
Owain: So, who do I have with us today?
Hayden: Hayden.
Owain: Talk to me about today. What was different about this match day experience to your kind of regular matchday?
Hayden: This time I could see the ball, see the players and actually know what’s happening instead of being there and watching it and just kind of trying to figure out where it is and not knowing what’s happening.
Owain: And that was because you had these goggles. The Give Vision goggles?
Hayden: Yeah.
Owain: And if you could just talk me through the Give Vision goggles, how does it kind of work for you?
Hayden: So you can zoom in, zoom out and add contrast. But you can also connect it to the cameras so you don’t have to follow the ball. It’ll follow it for you, because it’s attached to the cameras.
Owain: Obviously a win today, what does that mean? Being able to kind of experience the win today, the atmosphere and also through the goggles as well.
Hayden: It was quite cool. I could see the goals and, have the atmosphere, but also be able to see it as well.
Owain: That’s fantastic. And looking ahead as well, you hope that this is something that can become more regular across more clubs across the country?
Hayden: Yeah.
Owain: We just, finished the game and Bournemouth have won. How are you feeling after that victory?
Angela: Oh, amazing. Not only did they win, but I actually saw them win. I saw the goals. So, yeah, it was – using the goggles was just absolutely amazing. I don’t know what to say. It’s just like the little bit of vision I’ve got was just like. It came back to life. I haven’t seen like that for a long time.
Owain: That’s fantastic. And obviously to have that experience, the win and obviously the moments in the match is something that we as a charity always advocate. That it goes underestimated. The experience of being able to experience live sport and having something such as this and obviously being three years away from coming to watch it, it must be a pretty special moment.
Angela: Yeah, you forget about the atmosphere in the stadium. I’ve spent too long listening to it on the radio and actually being here and sort of being amongst the crowd and it’s just the whole thing. You forget how great it is and how you can’t replicate that.
Owain: Wonderful. And I think obviously with the victory as well, just makes it a really special moment as well. So that must be something fantastic.
Angela: Definitely. Definitely. And, Yeah, my guide dog Flynn enjoyed it too.
Owain: Wonderful. Well, hopefully it’s not three years until he can come back to watch another game.
Angela: Definitely not. If we can have those every time, I’ll be back here.
Owain: Brilliant. Thank you very much, Angela. Safe journey back.
Angela: Thank you.
Liam: Thank you to Joanna, Angela, Hayden and Hannah, as well as all the people at AFC Bournemouth for inviting us to come down and see firsthand what the Give Vision headsets can do.
That’s it for this episode. If you’d like to know more about the work that Level Playing Field does, then please visit our website levelplayingfield.org uk and also give us a follow on social. And if you’ve enjoyed this podcast, go rate and, review. Right, all the best. And if you’re going to a matchday, have a great time. Bye bye.