New Samsung TVs provide accessibility for people with disabilities

As a professional reviewer, I’ve seen a lot of tech product launches. But I can honestly say that Samsung’s First Look 2021 was the first time a launch presentation has brought a tear to my eyes.

I’m also a member of the disabled community, and last week at Samsung’s First Look event, I witnessed an encouraging example of great technology that spans all skill levels, and in a great way. Samsung’s new QLED and Neo QLED TVs have extensive accessibility features that allow more people to use the remote, find content and fully experience what’s on screen. The initiative, called ‘Screens for All’, offers new settings that specifically benefit people with visual and hearing impairments. But as with wheelchair ramps, subtitles, and auto steering, improvements that benefit the community with disabilities often benefit all of us. (everyone eventually experiences a disability.)

So what are the accessibility features?

In a video released last week, Samsung outlined a number of features specifically designed for people with impaired vision, blind, hard of hearing and deaf people. (See 11:10 in the video for more on the topic.) And while it may not meet everyone’s specific needs, it’s a very promising start.

• Sign Language Avatar: An on-screen avatar can even guide you through the TV’s functions.
• Closed caption and position: Closed captions are often displayed at the bottom of the screen, which is also where many programs tend to output text like tickers or weather updates. Two lines of text on top of each other make reading very difficult, but the subtitle positioning allows you to move the subtitles anywhere on the screen that make the most sense for the current program. Closed captions can also be set to fill automatically.
• Sign Language Recognition: Sign language users will be able to communicate with their TV using sign language, as others have been able to use voice commands.
• Voice guide: For people with visual impairment, Voice Guide identifies both the current channel and the volume level.
• See colors: Far more advanced than a simple RGB adjustment, SeeColors performs a series of vision tests that focus on color blindness to ensure that the colors on the screen best match what the viewer can see.
• High contrast: With a redesigned chipset, Samsung’s high contrast setting makes all menus more visible without affecting the video itself.
• Learn remote control: Thanks to a special program on Samsung’s latest TVs, visually impaired users can learn what the buttons on the remote do and where they are. One press of the button and the TV announces what the button is.
• Learn menu screen: As with the remote learning, the learning menu screen describes the layout of menus and what the different selections do.
• Grayscale: To sharpen the text and images, the entire screen can be converted to black and white.
• Color inversion: Another way to increase visibility for some users is to invert the colors on the screen.
• Multi-output audio: Being hard of hearing no longer means that the others in the house have to put up with the blaring TV sound. With Multi-Output Audio, the sound can be sent to both your soundbar and a Bluetooth headset, for example at different volume levels.
• To enlarge: As its name implies, this feature enlarges the text on the screen for easier reading.
• Audio Description: Standard subtitles are not enough. Audio description even describes scenes and hand gestures so the listener gets the whole picture.
• Sign Language Zoom: Sign language users will be happy to know that another great accessibility feature is the sign language zoom. This feature allows users to zoom in the sign language frame of the window up to 200% larger for easier interpretation of signs and gestures.
• Remote Button Repeat: For people with limited motor function, functions that hold down, such as lowering the volume and scrolling through channels, can go too fast. This option slows down scrolling to make stopping in the right place easier.

Give priority to accessibility

Credit: Samsung

The World Health Organization estimates that there are more than 466 million people worldwide who suffer from “disabling hearing loss” and more than 2.2 billion people with some form of low vision. As the world’s largest TV manufacturer, with approximately 20% market share, Samsung is uniquely positioned to make an effective impact on the community with disabilities.

Many of the features that Samsung outlined were already available on previous models, and some, such as the ability to adjust subtitles, are common to many brands. However, some – notably Automatic Closed Captioning, Sign Language Recognition, and Voice Guide – are more recent and have been developed directly in collaboration with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and those with low vision and deafness.

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

The First Look 2021 video features some truly moving moments where people with different disabilities interact with the new features. The segment closes with Samsung engineer Byungho Kim, legally blind since 1995, who has been a force for inclusive design within the company for a variety of 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 classes and volunteer programs and how people with disabilities use our products. easier. This drive has made me a better person. “

Slow but steady progress for accessibility

Credit: Samsung

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

Nonetheless, the bright spotlight that Samsung chose for accessibility at a global press event feels like a big step forward. And with big companies such as Samsung and Microsoft normalizing ‘access-first’ design, there is some hope that improved accessibility will become cheaper and more widely available in the coming years.

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