#yahoo fantasy sports
By Darren Burton, Yahoo Accessibility Specialist
The men’s college basketball tournament, aka The Big Dance, is a truly massive event across America. 68 of the top colleges in the nation take part, and offices and sports bars everywhere are abuzz with excitement over their brackets. I’ve been filling out mine since I was a college student back in the 1980’s, and that didn’t stop after I lost my sight in the 1990’s. I always played, but it just wasn’t the same when a friend or colleague filled out the brackets for me. It was kind of like someone was looking over my shoulder, and it affected how I made my picks.
All that changes today. I’m excited to announce that for the first time, you can use your favorite screen reader to complete your bracket using Yahoo Fantasy Sports Tourney Pick'em on your iOS device. Why such a big deal? Because now you’ll be able to join the millions of other college basketball fans on Yahoo Sports. Even if you have a disability like I do, you can independently join or create your own group, make your picks and track your progress against your friends through the entire championship tournament.
It all starts on Sunday when the brackets go live. Choose a winner for each of the games in every round and then root for your teams as you track your predictions throughout the six rounds of the tournament. For the iOS app, we’ve implemented Apple’s “magic-tap,” a single two-finger double-tap gesture that let’s you quickly find and follow your favorite team from round to round. So, if you like Kansas to win it all, you just find Kansas in the first round, do the magic-tap, and you are immediately taken to the Kansas game in the second round without any additional taps or swipes. Magic-tap again, and you are on the Kansas game in the third round. It’s a super easy way to follow your favorite team.
Check out Tourney Pick’em on Yahoo Fantasy Sports or download the latest version of the Yahoo Fantasy app on your iOS device. The Brackets are revealed at 5:30 pm EDT Sunday March 12, and you’ll have until tipoff of the first game on Thursday to join a group and make your picks.
Good luck, and let the Madness begin!
