Try These TV Settings if You Have Visual Impairments

Thanks to the 2010 law and the Americans with Disabilities Act, all programming shown on broadcast or cable TV has closed captions. And if that content is later available online, it will still have the captioning. Most streaming-only shows produced by platforms such as Netflix and Hulu included closed captions, too.

However, the captions may not be easy for people with visual impairments to read. Many TVs let you customize the captions’ text style, size, color, and opacity, along with the background colors. Making text bigger and increasing the contrast against its background can make it more legible.

Most TVs support Audio Descriptions, like the ones that allow DeNotaris to enjoy the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. This feature is called Screen Reader on some televisions, and many sets let you adjust the voice’s speed, volume, and pitch.

A number of other helpful technologies vary from brand to brand. It’s a good idea to explore your own TV’s accessibility settings to discover what’s available.

• TalkBack, which you’ll find on Google TVs from companies, including Hisense, Sony, and TCL; and Audio Guide, on Roku TVs, are essentially screen readers. They are meant to help users navigate the onscreen menus and program guides by converting onscreen text and menu items to speech. Both kinds of TV let you adjust speech rate and volume or intonation.
• Text Zoom/Text Magnification lets you zoom in on specific areas of the screen and enlarge the text in menus. On Samsung TVs, this feature is called Zoom Menu and Text. On Sony Google TVs, it’s called Text Magnification or Text Scaling. LG calls it Screen Zoom. Many TVs let you use both the zoom and magnification features at the same time.
• Voice Guide (sometimes called audio guidance, such as on LG sets) audibly describes menus, program guides, and options for basic TV operations, such as adjusting the volume or changing inputs. On some TVs, you can also adjust the speed, volume, and pitch of the audio guide. Amazon Fire TV’s Audio Descriptions feature adds an audio track with verbal descriptions of onscreen images and actions.
• Learn Menu Screen, on Samsung sets, can audibly tell you about the layout and features of the menus you select.

Several picture settings can help people with limited vision.

To start, many TVs now offer a high-contrast setting for text that makes it easier to read. This works by adjusting the background of some of the menus and font colors. If you have an older TV that lacks that setting, you can try adjusting the contrast manually in the picture controls area of the main Settings menu.

Some higher-end Samsung TVs have an advanced feature called Relumino that does something similar with all the images on the screen. Relumino outlines the edges of objects while increasing the screen’s contrast, adjusting brightness, and boosting colors. This can make it easier for viewers with sight impairments to identify people and the shapes of other objects in the picture.

Here are some additional contrast and color features you may have access to.

• Grayscale, available in LG, Samsung, and Google TV models, converts the colors of the TV screen to black-and-white. This can make people and other subjects in an image look more defined, especially to people with color blindness.
• Color Inversion inverts the text and background colors of all the menus, settings items, and apps on your TV. (It does not invert the colors of the videos that play.) For example, by inverting colors so that the text is white and the background is black, the setting can make navigating the menus easier. TVs with this feature include models from LG, Samsung, and Sony. Google TVs offers a color correction feature that adjusts screen colors to compensate for a person’s reduced sensitivity to certain colors, making it easier to differentiate among them.
• SeeColors mode is unique to Samsung TVs, and it’s aimed at people who have deficiencies in color vision. It provides a choice of nine different color settings. By adjusting the red, green, and blue levels, SeeColors can help viewers better distinguish colors on the screen. You can try the various SeeColors picture presets and choose the one that works best for you.

In addition to the remote control features mandated by the CVAA, such as buttons to activate and shut off captions and audio descriptions, many TV manufacturers have made their remotes easier to use for people with visual impairments.

For example, many manufacturers now include an accessibility shortcut button on remotes for easy access to those settings. On other TVs, you can call up the accessibility menu with a long press on the Mute button.

Also, some TV brands let users hear an audio description of remote-control functions. An example is the Learn Remote Control feature found on both LG and Samsung TVs; if you press a button on the remote control while the mode is on, the name and function of each button will be audibly explained.

Nowadays, many TVs have built-in digital assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, that let you control the TV and search for programs using voice commands.

In addition, a number of third-party universal remote controls for TVs and cable boxes include features for low-sighted or blind users. These features, include extra-large, illuminated buttons. Some remotes use different shapes, textures, or tactile features like raised dots on their buttons, making them easier to identify.