The sound of running engines, fans screaming and tire rubber burning on the track fill the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is last year, 2025, and Greg Williams sits taking in the action between turns three and four.

It's his second time attending, but first time connecting with the race in a new way.

Williams is blind. In his lap sits a device with little pins that pop up and down – refreshable braille.

The touch display tells him where the cars are and how they are moving. Through headphones, a person also gives an audio description of cars using the pit stop.

Williams is able to feel pins form an oval, while other ones move up and down to show the cars progress along the track. It lets him enjoy the race in real-time.

"Instead of having to wait for the announcers to happen, to go through the list of positions I can actually follow on here and determine who's, what car is in, you know, which place, who's leading, etc.," Williams said.

Williams said the tactile device compliments the track announcers and the audio description changes the way he is able to engage with the race.

"Normally, it would be much preferable for me to listen to it on the radio at home without the noise, etc.," he said. "But having all of these methods of interacting with it makes it worthwhile to be in person."

People with limited sight often enjoy sports through listening. But audio descriptions of sports events - like the upcoming Indy 500 - can miss details. To create a better experience, one company has a device that gives people more information through touch.

A device expanding its use

Tactile Engineering had a few people use the device last year. This year it expects to host 20 users and their families. Some guests are flying in from Kansas, Florida and Texas.

Tactile Engineering Marketing Director Wunji Lau said demand has grown as the device evolves to bring a more complete experience.

"Our starting goal was always to try to tighten the community of blind individuals with each other, but also build a community where blind people and sighted people attend the same events, play the same games, exist in the same online spaces," Lau said.

That extra connection is what company CEO David Schleppenbach aims for.

"We realized there's an awful lot of people with disabilities that are fans of sporting events and other types of entertainment that are just missing out," Schleppenbach said.

The company, based in Lafayette, originally created textbooks in braille.

Schleppenbach and his team launched the cadence tablet about three years ago. Its original purpose was for education – to improve access to textbooks.

Then company leaders saw a gap in sports accessibility and pioneered it at the Indy 500.

Developers took four of the cadence tablets and assembled them together to make a larger board that allows for more information to be displayed at one time.

A growing market

There are other devices on the market that aim to improve sports experiences in different ways, including one with a magnet that moves on a pad representing a ball on a soccer field.

But experts say all devices are not equal. Rua Williams, no known relation to Greg Williams, teaches computer graphics technology at Purdue. Williams said some don't provide much additional information. So they question who those devices are for – the blind community or organizations looking to check an equity box.

"One of the things that's really strange to me about these devices, is that they are so context specific that it becomes really difficult to believe that the product is actually for the blind users that they claim is for," Rua Williams said. "It becomes a kind of spectacle."

Williams said the Tactile Engineering cadence tablet has potential for long-term success at the Indy 500 because it uses refreshable braille to give new information about all the cars at once.

"The Indy 500, you need to know where every car is," Rua Williams said. "The importance of that event is actually the location of every car in context. And that requires a tactile resolution higher than anything that the other companies are doing."

Tactile Engineering's device is still evolving. Lau said there were things the team learned at the race last year – including challenges with stable bluetooth access with more than 300,000 people at the track.

But even with the technical challenges, Lau said users gave positive feedback.

"People said they loved being able to feel the track then tracking individual drivers when they needed to," he said.

Increasing  accessibility 

IMS and Tactile Engineering first partnered when the track hosted people to watch the solar eclipse in 2024.

IMS and IndyCar President Doug Boles said the track is committed to the initiative and that expanding inclusivity is necessary when thinking of the future of the sport.

"How do we give them an opportunity to experience this special event here in Indianapolis? And it's definitely one of the things we continue to pay attention to," Boles said.

The device is one of several ways the IMS is increasing accessibility. Brandon Scott is the manager of content creation for Easterseals Crossroads. The organization serves and advocates for people with disabilities and their families.

Scott uses a wheelchair and enjoys attending sporting events. For him, the track is one of the most accessible, with wheelchair accessible seating in premier locations, expanded restroom access and more ADA parking. Scott said he's excited about the cadence tablet availability at the race.

"The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of my favorite places, and the Indy 500 the tradition that it has, not just in Indianapolis but worldwide, being able to make that an inclusive event is a really great opportunity for the Speedway," Scott said.

Tactile Engineering plans to apply the cadence tablet to more sports.

In the past year it has been used at a Major League Baseball game and will be returning again this summer to a Cardinals game. The group will be combining the live audio description broadcast and a test application on the tablet. On the device the player positions and movements will be displayed. Users will also be able to access stats in braille.

"Baseball is hugely into statistics, so we would have access to that, and we could put all that in braille, instantly available to at the fingertips of anyone at the stadium," Lau said.

The company is also in discussions to bring the technology to other IndyCar races and NASCAR.

Schleppenbach said he wants Indiana to be a leader in sports and entertainment accessibility.

"We've started to get a lot of discussions underway with the other major sports teams in Indiana," Schleppenbach said. "We're looking at doing things like plays and speaking events and concerts, and trying to bring this access to as many people as we can."

The ultimate goal for Tactile Engineering is to be able to have people bring the cadence tablet to events and link up to an application that provides them real time information at the touch of their fingertips no matter where they are seated.

This year's Indy 500 is set for Sunday with the green flag at 12:45 p.m. EST.

Contact WFYI All Things Considered newscaster and reporter Samantha Horton at shorton@wfyi.org or on Signal at SamHorton.05  

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