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Tag: sports

A Good Example Of What Not To Do and Using Color To Convey Information

Published September 25, 2021 by Kelly Ford

I’m not a huge golf fan but with the Ryder Cup being played here in Wisconsin, I was a bit curious about the Whistling Straits course design. There is a good hole-by-hole guide that gives a description of the course.

Selecting a more details link for any hole takes you to a page with additional information. I know enough to know that golfers can start from different tee positions and assumed the numbers for each hole represented the distance for those locations. That’s largely where my understanding of the numbers stops so I was curious why there were five numbers for each hole.

A brother of mine tells me that for those familiar with golf, the colors for each number are fairly established as far as what they mean. Black represents the distance for professionals for example.

This to me is an excellent example of what not to do for web accessibility as far as conveying information with color alone. For those who do not see the colors, as obvious as they might be to golfers, the numbers by themselves are clearly not obvious. Similarly, for those less familiar with golf, I contend attaching a descriptive word to each number would be of benefit.

This is also an illustration of why manual review of web accessibility is so important. I ran multiple accessibility tools on one of these pages. Some contrast errors with other text on the page were flagged but not a single automated tool called attention to these numbers. Automated testing is just not at the point to handle that level of analysis.

This is going to be an example I add to my learning materials on web accessibility. For me it illustrates the concept of not using color alone quite well.

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Improved Sports Descriptions

Published August 24, 2020 by Kelly Ford

I enjoy sports but often find myself wanting more details than even the best play-by-play announcer can provide. I find myself wondering if technology could help in the situation.

I’ll start by taking football as an example. As most fans of the sport with know you have 22 players on the field at any given time. It would be simply impossible for any announcer to describe the location of all 22 players, let alone what each of them is doing during a play.

Imagine though if you divided a football field up into a complete grid where you could express the location of any spot by a set of coordinates. Then imagine that you can describe the location of players based on this grid. So at the start of the play you could indicate where all 22 players are lined up. Then as the players move during a play, you could have technology that would communicate how any player is moving throughout the grid.

Or imagine if you could combine this technology with the accessibility improvements that have come in various touch devices so you could slide your finger around in the application window and tell the location of any player at any time. Obviously doing any of this in real time would likely still be tough but imagine if you could do this on demand for certain plays just to get a sense of what’s really going on.

I have no idea how possible this is with today’s technology. It seems like it could be an interesting research project for someone in the right environment. I’m tossing this out there because it’s some thing I’ve thought about lately. Anyone want to take up the challenge?

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TuneIn Live on Alexa

Published October 14, 2018 by Kelly Ford

If you are a user of the TuneIn audio services and in particular a subscriber to their premium TuneIn Live service, TuneIn Live on Alexa might be worth exploring. The service is available at a discounted rate of $2.99 for Amazon Prime members or $3.99 without a Prime subscription.  This is lower than the standard $7.99 monthly subscription price.

One benefit I enjoy in TuneIn Live is the fact that audio for the NFL, NBA, MLB and NBA, which typically requires individual subscriptions, is part of the service.  Whether you use the Alexa option or the standard TuneIn Live, if you subscribe to multiple audio services, this is likely a cost savings.

TuneIn Live works on most Alexa-enabled devices. I was initially a bit hesitant to try this option because I didn’t want to be held to just the physical locations of any Echo devices I have.  Although it isn’t listed in the supported devices, I’ve found that TuneIn Live on Alexa  also works on an Amazon Fire tablet. This is great for portability.

I remember the good old days of internet streaming when audio from those radio stations that were online was available without by and large any limitations.  Those days have long gone, especially for things such as live professional sports, which now mostly require some sort of a subscription.

TuneIn in the free form offers a great deal of audio.  I find the Live subscription version adds enough value that it is worth the cost.  Adding the Alexa option for a discount, especially since it works on the portable Fire tablet and saves either $4 or $5 off the monthly subscription is worth considering.

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