If you are blind or visually impaired, there are several ways to watch catch-up TV or enjoy Live TV streaming with Audio Description … least that’s the theory.  In reality, however, it’s a very different story.

I don’t watch much TV, only my nightly dose of Emmerdale and Coronation Street, news and interesting documentaries narrated by the wonderful Sir David Attenborough.  I’m not into movies, and I don’t subscribe to any of the paid-for services like YouTube, Netflix, Disney or ad-free content.  I do have an LG TV with Voice Guide turned on so that I can navigate the menu structure and have channel and programme names announced.  We have it connected to an aerial and use Freeview which, in all honesty, can be a little juddery in our area.  Audio Description is turned on so that any programmes I do watch are complemented by quiet passages being filled in by an audio described track.

So, you might think this is available everywhere, across all platforms and offered on all services, right?  Wrong! That couldn’t be further from the truth, and I recently took a quick snapshot of what accessibility features are available to blind and visually impaired people, and ‘minefield’ is the word I would use to describe what I discovered.

Televisions

Let’s start with televisions themselves.  Only larger Samsung models carry Voice Guide and visual accessibility features.  They have even won awards for their accessibility offering, but not all models carry such features so check before you settle on a Samsung.

LG appears to offer Voice Guide and visual accessibility across all its range as far as I can tell.  Again, you are advised to check before buying though.

Sony Bravia televisions use Android as its operating system which means that the TalkBack screen reader and magnification can be turned on.  But my experience of trying one such TV wasn’t good as the screen appeared to change all the time, making it difficult to focus on a button to press.  I have heard that the experience for TTS users has worsened over the years on these sets.

Other brands don’t appear to have accessibility features built into their televisions, but it is a changing landscape so you must always check if your goal is to purchase a TV with some form of TTS or magnification.

TV Streamers

Then there are televisions and boxes from the likes of Sky, Virgin Media, Google, the recently launched Freely service, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV and Sticks.  These are known as streaming or on-demand services that you can access by plugging them into your existing TV and subscribing to the apps and services they offer.  You can also plug a Chromecast into your TV and Cast from your phone.  But all this is where the fun really begins!

Depending on what TV, streamer or service you opt for, it doesn’t follow that Audio Description will be available.  Nor does it follow that apps and content is accessible to navigate once you have signed up.

Amazon Fire TV Cube

I recently decided to purchase an Amazon Fire TV Cube because it appeared to offer the VoiceView screen reader, the Alexa assistant, and - if I was really lucky - Audio Description on some channels.  The channels I wanted to access most were ITVX, BBC iPlayer and the STV Player.  I could have signed into Spotify or Amazon Music, but I already access these on my phone so no need to worry about them.

The first Amazon Fire TV Cube that arrived wouldn’t pair with the accompanying remote control, and despite a sighted family member trying to get it to work, it wouldn’t play ball so I ordered a replacement.  The second device was more successful.  I was able to turn VoiceView on with the Back+Menu buttons pressed together for two seconds.  Hey presto! Setting up an Amazon Fire is reasonably straightforward with no sight.  Once I turned on VoiceView, I found the remote control easy to use as the buttons are well spaced out and distinguishable.  The first hurdle I ran into, however, was when I had to enter a four-digit PIN, partly for parental control, and partly for making purchases.  VoiceView only did a partial job of telling me what it was looking for though so I used my Be My AI interrogator to read the TV screen using my phone’s camera.  Once I entered the four digits and confirmed the same PIN, I moved onto the rest of setup.

The next hurdle was signing into my accounts on ITVX, BBC iPlayer and the STV Player.  Each app displayed a QR code, and it took me some time to work out what to do once my phone’s camera saw each one.  But persistence paid off, and I found myself eventually signed into each app and able to navigate it to find content.  One positive was the quality of using my Wi-Fi network to stream instead of relying on an aerial to use Freeview on the TV, there was no comparison for me.

But having gone through all that rigmarole, I was bitterly disappointed to discover that Audio Description was not available on Live TV in these apps, only on catch-up content.  This appears to be a similar scenario on other streamers such as Apple TV, Chromecast et al.  So accessibility is only partially there.  Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV both have reasonable screen readers to navigate inside apps, and AD is on catch-up content.  You can also speak to Alexa on an Amazon Fire TV or Stick to turn on your TV and search for content.  But most if not all platforms don’t seem to carry Audio Description on Live TV channels within the confines of those apps.  On the LG TV with Freeview using an aerial, AD is available on both Live TV and catch-up.

I contacted a colleague at RNIB whose remit is to liaise with broadcasters and Ofcom.  She admitted that things have improved, but nowhere near enough, and agreed that Ofcom should be pushing harder for broadcasters to make their platforms more accessible, and developers forced to add Audio Description given it is available anyway.  Realistically, we are a long way off from where the whole industry should be regarding accessibility.

As for platforms such as Sky and Virgin Media, they have made a lot of positive noises about making their services more accessible, but that’s all it seems to be, a lot of noise with very little substance! The recently released Freely TV isn’t accessible either despite it being released in 2024.  What does that tell you?  It tells me that Ofcom doesn’t care enough, and that developers and broadcasters alike are getting away with not committing to full accessibility implementation.

So where does that leave blind and visually impaired TV watchers?  While things have moved on compared to what they were 20 years or so ago, nobody can definitively say that it’s a level playing field, it most certainly is not.  RNIB receives regular calls from confused customers asking things like:

• What TV should I buy?
• Which platform has the most accessibility?
• Can I navigate the various channels or apps with built-in text-to-speech (TTS?
• Which services carry Audio Description?
• Is that Audio Description on Live TV streaming, or is it only there on-demand or catch-up?

Summary

If you want to dip your toe into the confusing world of TV streaming, your best options are probably to go for an LG or Samsung TV, checking to see if the model you want carries Voice Guide.  Most of the apps on Smart TVs are very difficult or impossible to navigate with the TV’s built-in screen reader, so don’t expect to turn on Voice Guide and start navigating round Disney, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, ITVX et al because you are likely to hit a brick wall.  Therefore, consider something like an Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV Cube or Stick as an addition because they are your best options for navigating the various apps.

Personally, nobody is going to get any of my money if they don’t make their platform accessible, so Sky, Virgin Media, Now TV! and Freely are out of the equation as things currently stand.  As for Audio Description, it is there on many channels now, but it tends to be available on catch-up only, not apps where Live TV is available, so accessibility for blind and visually impaired TV watchers is still incredibly fragmented.

See?  I told you it’s a minefield! But let’s hope that, in a year or two, things will be more clear cut, and we will be able to choose any service without having to consider what accessibility there is.