Visually impaired Palace fan makes commentary history

“I got to the stage where I was going to give up my season ticket.”

When Neale Ormston developed diabetic retinopathy, an eye condition, he thought his days of attending Crystal Palace games were over.

The 53-year-old was “not getting enjoyment” out of football because of the struggles of getting to matches and not being able to see and keep up with play as he once did.

But now he has “that passion again” and has made history as the first visually impaired fan to commentate on a Premier League game using a GiveVision headset.

BBC Sport went to meet Ormston at Selhurst Park and watch him in action.

Football commentary is challenging enough – finding the correct words to describe the action, keeping up with the play and identifying the right player at the right moment is more difficult than the professionals make it look.

For Ormston, who said he was “nervous” to go live, it was made even harder by his inability to have notes or a teamsheet.

For Sunday’s match against Manchester City, he was providing audio to other visually impaired fans in the stadium alongside colleagues Roger Dickson, Andy Bull and Chris Winter.

Palace have provided this service for their fans for many years, but since last season GiveVision headsets have also been made available for those that are eligible.

The headset, which looks like a virtual reality mask, transmits to the retina to allow the person using it to see what is there.

During the game, the user can control what they see via network camera feeds and they can zoom in and out and change the contrast. It also also allows users to switch to regular vision to join in with the real-time celebrations with those around them.

“I’m actually at more of an advantage now than everyone else,” smiled Ormston. “My friends round me ask when there is VAR because I get replays so I can tell them when to cheer and not to cheer.”

Ormston took the headset to Dublin last Thursday for Palace’s Conference League victory over Shelbourne but is unable to take it to any Premier League away game because other grounds do not have the requisite 5G infrastructure.

“The atmosphere is what I want to experience,” he added. “But it’s about inclusivity.

“There are so many clubs that don’t even have the audio commentary option, so how many visually impaired people are there out there who don’t go but want to go?”

One in 30 people in the UK are affected by some degree of sight loss, but at present, Palace are the only club to offer the vision enhancement system.

A total of 73% of sports fans with visual impairments do not attend matches due to the lack of accessibility, according to Unadev, the France-based organisation that raises awareness of visual impairment issues.

That is something Ormston and other people connected to the club want to change.

For Sunday’s game, eight people had the headsets, which are also available to travelling fans if they register in advance.

One fan who relies on the technology is Susan Venon, 80, who has had gradual deterioration in her sight since 2004.

She called the service “a revelation” because without it she too “would not be coming now, and wouldn’t have renewed [her season ticket] for this season” despite following the club for 56 years.

“I have always had to have someone here with me to tell me what is going on but with the headset I can see everything,” she said. “It is so wonderful. I want to go to every match now!”

Charlotte Woodward, Chair of Crystal Palace‘s Disabled Supporters’ Association, says the headsets “should be a standard across the Premier League and beyond”.

“You can’t put a price on sight,” she said. “It doesn’t discriminate against age, gender, race or background. You can have a sight condition from birth or later on in life.

“At Palace we invest in fans and by doing this it shows the club’s dedication to them being the 12th man.”

Stan Karpenko, the founder of GiveVision, told BBC Sport it has “spoken to almost every club in the UK”.

He added that the biggest barrier is not the installation cost but “it’s the awareness of their fans who could benefit from it”.

Karpenko said: “If there are no facilities to make their experience adequate enough to attend, then they don’t think they have any visually impaired fans.

“Our job is to raise awareness so that football clubs know about the fans who are still excluded from the game.”