The club has launched the feed this week, working closely with British Wireless for the Blind Fund (BWBF), a small national charity that provides specially adapted audio equipment to visually impaired people.
While many clubs do provide free audio commentary online, the feeds are locked in behind log-in authentication and wrapped up in flash players which can be very frustrating and almost impossible for people with sight loss to access on their own.
The feed has been specially designed to go out on BWBF’s streamed service, which currently has more than 800 listeners.
Final testing took place during the club’s 1-0 win against Burton Albion last week.
A message has been put out on the charity’s service so users know it is now live, and it will be available every time there is a game, both home and away, to listen to.
BWBF’s technology assistant, Dave Beard, said: “The results of the final test last week were extremely positive – the stream is 100% stable and we didn’t experience any drops during the entire 90 minutes.
“We are really excited to be able to offer this to the many sports fans we know we have that enjoy our streamed service.
“British Wireless is extremely grateful to the technology team at Newcastle United, which has worked with us to produce this stream.
“It will have a massive impact on our blind and partially sighted listeners and we hope it will pave the way to even more accessible live football on our streamed service.”
Steve Swinyard, head of safeguarding, welfare & equality at Newcastle United, added: “We are delighted to be able to work with the British Wireless for the Blind Fund in order to make the provision of this service possible.
"As an organisation, we are committed to working towards football being accessible to all and we consider this to be a real success.
“I hope the service is used and enjoyed by many supporters and adds real value to the overall supporter experience we offer.”
To find out more about British Wireless for the Blind Fund, follow on Twitter @BritishWireless or go to www.blind.org.uk
