And, "How do they know what they're watching and what's on later?" is a question I hear asked frequently.
Very easily, thanks to audio description, Smart Talk , TVonics and the new Panasonic talking TVs. These are constantly making TV accessible to blind and partially sighted people.
Audio description is a standard feature that comes on almost every Freeview channel, Sky and other TV networks. It won't read out things like the programme guide or what channel you've changed to, it just fills you in on action happening on a programme between speech. For example, the audio description would say "Two men walk into the room looking angry," just as it happens on the screen.
Smart Talk and TVonics are different types of talking Freeview boxes. Smart Talk is just a standard talking Freeview box. It will read out the TV guide, channels, what time a programme starts and finishes. It also talks you through the set up including the main menu and tuning.
The Smart Talk box only lets you watch TV and it doesn't have HD or programme recording features, but the TVonics box does. The TVonics Freeview Plus box has a built-in text-to-speech voice just like the Smart Talk box, but it lets you watch TV and also record programmes in HD. It will read out what is scheduled for recording, what you have recorded and if there is a programme currently recording, it will read out when it starts and stops recording that programme. You can get TVonics devices with up to 500GB of memory.
I've tried both these boxes, and personally think the TVonics is better because of the recording and HD features, but the Smart Talk is great as well. I've not tried the new Panasonic talking TVs yet but personally wouldn't recommend them, as the cheapest is about £800.
If you would like more information, RNIB has posted a video on YouTube demonstrating the Smart Talk and there are webpages on audio description and product reviews by people with sight loss. They can also be bought from the RNIB shop.
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