New Samsung TVs Address Disability Access

As a professional judge, I have seen a great deal of the introduction of technological products. But I can honestly say that Samsung’s First Look 2021 was the first time that brought a tear to my eye.

I’m also a member of the disabled community, and during Samsung’s First Look meeting last week, I witnessed an encouraging example of great technology that encompasses all levels of ability and to a large extent. Samsung’s new QLED and Neo QLED TVs have extensive accessibility features that allow the use of the remote, finding content and experiencing what’s on the screen. The initiative, called “Screens for All”, offers new settings that specifically benefit those with visual and hearing impairments. But as with wheelchair access, subtitles and automatic steering, there are benefits to the disabled community that benefit us all. everyone eventually experiences some kind of disability.)

What are the accessibility features?

In a video released last week, Samsung outlined a number of features specifically aimed at visually impaired, blind, visually impaired and deaf people. (Skip to 11:10 in the video for more information on the subject.) And while it may not meet everyone’s specific needs, it’s a promising start.

• Sign language avatar: An on-screen avatar can even guide you through the features of the TV.
• Caption and position: Captions often run at the bottom of the screen, and this is also where many programs tend to execute text, such as ticks or weather updates. Two lines of text on top of each other make for very difficult reading, but with the positioning of captions you can move the captions anywhere on the screen which is the best sense for the current program. Captions can also be set to fill in automatically.
• Sign Language Recognition: Sign language users will be able to communicate with their TV using sign language, as others could use the voice control.
• Voice guide: For those with poor eyesight, Voice Guide identifies both the current channel and the volume.
• See Colors: SeeColors is much more advanced than a simple RGB adjustment and performs a series of vision tests that are set to color blindness to ensure that the colors on the screen best match what the viewer can see.
• High contrast: With a redesigned disc set, Samsung’s high contrast setting makes all menus easier to see without affecting the video itself.
• Learn remote control: A special program on Samsung’s latest TVs will enable visually impaired users to learn what the remote buttons do and where they are located. A push of a button and the TV announces what the button is.
• Learn menu screen: As with Learning Remote Control, the Learn menu describes the layout of the menus and what the different choices do.
• Gray scale: To sharpen the text and images, the entire screen can be converted to black and white.
• Color inversion: Another way to increase the visibility for some users is to invert the colors on the screen.
• Multi-output audio: Being hard of hearing does not mean that the others in the house have to endure the TV. With multi-output audio, the audio can be routed to your audio bar and a Bluetooth headset, for example, at different volume levels.
• Enlarge: As the name suggests, this feature enlarges text on the screen to make it easier to read.
• Audio description: Standard captions are not enough. Sound description goes so far as to describe scenes and hand gestures so that the listener gets the whole picture.
• Sign Language Zoom: Sign language users will be happy to know that another excellent accessibility feature is sign language zoom. With this feature, users can zoom the sign language frame of the window up to 200% larger for easier interpretation of signs and gestures.
• Repeat distance button: For those with limited motor function, press-and-hold functions such as volume reduction and scrolling through channels can move too fast. This option slows down the roll to make stopping in the right place easier.

Prioritization of accessibility

Credit: Samsung

The World Health Organization estimates that more than 466 million people worldwide ‘eliminate hearing loss’ and that more than 2.2 billion people have some form of visual impairment. As the largest TV manufacturer in the world, with approximately 20% market share, Samsung is uniquely positioned to have an effective impact on the disabled community.

Many of the features that Samsung outlined were already available on earlier models, and some, such as the ability to customize subtitles, are common to many brands. However, some – specifically automatic captions, sign language recognition and speech guide – are newer and have been developed directly with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and people with poor eyesight and deafness.

“At Samsung, we strive to provide them with the same level of viewing experience as all of our consumers,” said JH Han, President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.

The First Look 2021 video features some gripping moments in which people with a variety of disabilities interact with the new features. The segment concludes with Samsung engineer Byungho Kim, who has been legally blind since 1995, contributing to inclusive design in the company on various products, including screen readers, an e-learning platform, washing machines and mobile devices.

“My life changed after I went blind,” Kim said in 2018. “I started thinking more about how I could help others like me. I thought about ways to develop lessons and volunteer programs and how disabled people could use our products. This ride made me a better person.”

Slow but steady progress for accessibility

Credit: Samsung

The new accessibility settings are available on all 2021 QLED and Neo QLED models – premium models in the 2021 range that may be out of reach for many customers.

Nevertheless, the bright spotlight that Samsung has chosen to place accessibility during a global press event feels like a big step forward. And with large companies like Samsung and Microsoft normalizing the accessible first design, there is hope that improved accessibility will be cheaper and more widely available in the next few years.

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