“What just happened?”: Understanding Non-visual Watching Sports Experiences

Sports enhances cultural and social life by bringing individuals and communities together. While sports have a different meaning and importance depending on the culture and people, there is a long history of people watching sports. However, sports viewing can rely on visual information, and not fully accessible to People with Vision Impairments (PVI). In this paper, we present findings from interviews with 43 PVI about their experiences and attitudes toward watching sports. We report on their stories about accessibility challenges, and suggestions for future accessible technologies that could increase the accessibility of watching sports, with a focus on the information needs and modality.