Accessibility in Sports: Building Economic Power and Innovation for Enterprise

Benefits of Language Accessibility in Sports

Although accessibility planning is not part of every sports venue’s operations, there are benefits to making accessibility in sports standard for diverse attendees:

• Higher attendance: Accessibility features help stadiums attract a broader audience. When Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and multilingual fans come away with a positive experience, they help spread the word about the thrilling experience they had at a game, which gets more people interested.
• Greater participation: Accessibility can boost fan excitement during live games and help everyone cheer and celebrate game wins and boo the losses together. Ever see “the wave” at sports events?
• Positive brand reputation: Stadiums that prioritize accessibility demonstrate inclusivity, encouraging fans to return to relive the same fan experience.
• Robust communication: Captioning, sign language interpreting and spoken language interpreting, and translation services contribute to positive experiences and effective communication for fans and staff.
• Increased revenue: A larger fan base, sponsorships, concession and merchandise sales, and accessible online platforms all contribute to higher revenue.

Financial Incentives

The sports industry is wildly profitable. A 2023 study from Statista showed tickets for major sporting events yielded more than 14 billion dollars in 2022, with that number on track to reach 15 billion in 2024. Even with more fans watching their favorite pro sports at home, experts expect the demand for live sporting event tickets to exceed two billion by 2028.Including diverse fans can bring increased attendance at stadiums, considering — as we mentioned above — there are more than 22 million people in the U.S. alone who speak languages other than English, not to mention international visitors. And more than a quarter of American adults have a disability. If sports venues committed to offering those fans the same quality of experience as other fans, how much more likely do you think they’d be to buy tickets? Add in concessions and merchandise sales on top of that.

With the advent of AI tools for real-time captioning and translation and the adoption of universal design, sports attendance will only increase when Deaf, hard-of-hearing, and multilingual fans learn there are language services that directly cater to their communication needs.

The benefits for diverse sports fans are clear, but language accessibility can also benefit sports venues and athletic organizations through increased partnerships and sponsorships.

Case study: 2024 US Open Tennis Championships

Sorenson sponsored the 2024 US Open, and a multilingual Sorenson team attended the tournament with two Sorenson products — Sorenson Forum and Sorenson Express — to facilitate communication with staff and fellow fans. How did it go? We asked them about the experience.

An Unexpected Experience for Deaf Fans

• The US Open website states, “The US Open is fully accessible for guests with disabilities.” Our team said many of the accessibility services appear to focus on patrons with physical disabilities and less so on sensory disabilities. Without the invaluable support of Sorenson Express for on-demand ASL interpreting and Sorenson Forum for live captioning, our Deaf team members noted that language accessibility at the tournament would have been a challenge: On the first day, the team visited guest services to request captioning. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a misunderstanding as the stadium staff believed that captions should be available once they found their seats.
• When the captioning was not available, the team returned to guest services. The staff then offered assistive listening devices. Despite the team explaining they were Deaf and unable to use the devices, the staff struggled to understand the device’s limitations.
• “They were really pushing me to try it,” says Jessie Adner, Sorenson Director of Design Consulting. “I was saying over and over again that I can’t hear. I use sign language interpreters.”

Finally, the stadium staff understood and they put the device away. “I could see their wheels turning,” Ms. Adner says. “I gave them my business card and told them I’d be happy to consult with them.”

• When they were seated in the stadium, the Sorenson team happily used the captions on the video board, but said captions cut in and out throughout the game and primarily focused on the referee speaking rather than announcements, the players, the coaches, or introductions.
• Then they had an idea. They connected a small radio that was available for hearing patrons to a smartphone with the Sorenson Express app to get an ASL interpreter on demand to interpret the game.

Something as simple as interpreting available in a mobile app fulfilled the basic desire to enjoy the game along with other fans.

“People can cheer for their favorite players or talk with the person sitting next to them,” Ms. Adner says. “We were really emphasizing the game day experience that Deaf people often lack.”

Ms. Adner says she’d love to go back to the US Open next year. “It was so fun with my colleagues, with the food and the experience, and just being in the same area as all of the players,” Ms. Adner says. “I’m addicted to tennis now.”

This year’s US Open did have a sign language interpreter for the national anthem as the result of deaf fans’ recommendations in 2023.

Using Sorenson Forum for Seamless Communication

The U.S. Open attracts not only athletes from around the world, but also fans spanning languages and cultures. A highlight of the game experience for the Sorenson team was being able to talk to those diverse fans using Sorenson Forum’s on-demand translation and spoken language interpreting.

“We had the opportunity to use Sorenson Forum with foreign language speakers,” says Sorenson Director of Corporate Events Britnee Hursin. “We were able to have a conversation which was really cool.”

A Spanish-speaking Sorenson team member carried on a full conversation with a Chinese couple who spoke Mandarin, using Sorenson Forum to translate in real time between their respective languages.