Barclays Center Needs Live Captioning, Deaf Sports Fan And Advocate Says: Op-Ed

The following op-ed comes courtesy of a Patch community member. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.

The Barclays Center in Brooklyn hosts various sporting events, including NCAA March Madness, Brooklyn Nets, NY Liberty, NBA draft nights and others. It offers dining, retail, and other amenities. Live captioning and new mobile captioning QR codes are yet to appear on the boards, though they are expected soon. However, live captioning on the boards remains unavailable, despite repeated promises and an unknown timeline for its implementation.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Barclays Center collaborated with Coast 2 Coast Captioning, LLC. However, circumstances have changed after COVID. Coast 2 Coast Captioning had been advocating for captioning on its boards since the beginning and even provided captioning services for Barclays at sporting events many years ago. Despite discussions about captioning other events, they never materialized due to a lack of equipment. Instead, Coast 2 Coast Captioning utilized StreamText, a data-streaming service accessible only on phones or tablets with WiFi, not displayed on Jumbotrons or video boards.

I advocated for live captioning in person, via Zoom, and via email. While non-live captioning has improved, Anthem has persisted on the boards. We must continue striving for improved accessibility, especially live captioning, which is crucial for broadcasting and public address announcements. Other Deaf Brooklyn sports fans advocate for this too.

Through my advocacy, live captioning has been already installed on boards at most NJ/NY venues, including Madison Square Garden, UBS Arena, Prudential Center, Rutgers Athletics, Citi Field (center field and right field), Red Bull Arena/Sports Illustrated Arena, US Open Tennis Center (Louis Armstrong Stadium) and others. In response to my advocacy, some of these venues have also added mobile captioning QR code scans on boards.

Through my advocacy, I’ve proposed hosting the inaugural Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty pro basketball Deaf awareness or American Sign Language (ASL) night. However, the teams are yet to prepare for such an event and are uncertain about the availability of Deaf ASL anthem performers and ASL communication technology.

Should the Big Ten men’s basketball conference tournament return to New York City in the future, I recommend Barclays Center in Brooklyn as a suitable venue.

Gary Noll, a deaf advocate for accessibility in New Jersey and New York sports, has been instrumental in improving the experience for deaf fans by championing live captioning (CC) and American Sign Language (ASL) at New Jersey and New York professional and college sports venues. His dedication has earned him recognition with the New Jersey Governor’s Jefferson Award (2019) for his contributions to sports accessibility, the New Jersey State Governor’s Volunteerism Award (2024) for being recognized as a “Community Pillar” for his advocacy, and the Russ Berrie Award (2024) for being recognized as an “unsung hero” in the community. Gary Noll is currently advocating for live captioning, mobile captioning QR codes, and ASL awareness at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.