well sky did develop the sky talker, basically a usb device that plugs into a sky box, which gave access to the tv guide, channel listings etc directly from the box with speech. but this was about 10 years back, and I don't know if its compatible with sky q, also, though I heard from many people that it was unstable and crashed frequently. they developed it with the rnib then from what I have read abandoned it by no putting out updates, basically thinking oh we made this product job done.
I had one of those upstairs. It was alright but you couldn't access the guide, only listen to the names of channels and info on what's on at that moment. The Sky Q stuff is entirely different - the main box is the hub for families usually to stash hours of content. That's why I like it because I don't recall ever having clashed recordings and such like the old sky plus boxes. I also don't think Sky will do much with plus now because don't new users get Q as standard, not sure about that though. I got Sky Q because i'd been with Sky for over 10 years and they offered it to me for cheap.
apparently there accessibility team still recommends blind customers go with plus for ease of access, and they are still making new boxes. I don't think sky are doing anything with either q or plus, instead they seem intent in pushing out regular updates to there account maintenance app my sky. the fact q is a central hub is another reason I don't like the idea of it, I don't like the thought of other people I am in the house with being able to snoop through what I record and judge me because of my tv viewing habits at least with plus and my own box I have total privacy. also if all recordings are stored centrally that could make it annoying for me to locate what I want to watch I could see it easily getting very crowded and messy.
For me, the worries about Sky Q's hub recording things that I might be ashamed of doesn't really apply because I always like the documentary type things - I got stalked by my satanic nutter boyfriend kind of things, general crime type stuff. My partner's the one that watches soaps and all of the rest of it - it's not too difficult to navigate really considering. I know what you're trying to say but I remember once that the box had like 25 plus rows of recordings and I got through what was necessary at that time. It's not a race Those boxes store so much on them you're not going to upset anyone. I even had to remove some things today because I got entirely bored of the series and didn't want to waste the space. It's entirely up to you though, we do things in iOS very differently. I'm a spacial thinker which is ironic because my mobility is terrible outdoors and yet you like the single window approach. I personally like splitting the screen and stuff, switching between applications on the other side. I can't, as it appears you can, work entirely on an iPhone.
As already mentioned, Sky Talker literally did only give you the names of programmes on now and and the next hour and the synopsis of what you were watching. You could not navigate your list of recordings so you'd still have to play each of your recordings until you played the one you wanted. I recall when the HD boxes rolled out Sky Talker would not work with them and I don't believe it was ever updated to work with them so I'm pretty confident it won't work with Sky Q.don't think it ever worked on the HD boxes
I've been monitoring the forum over the past few days but not had chance to answer some of the points made regarding whether taking action against Sky is the right thing to do or not so I thought over the next few posts I would give my reasons for why I feel it's necessary. For a number of reasons but not least due to the amount of detail I'm attempting to go in when contacting Sky, it's taken me quite a while to get my final formal complaint letter put together. This letter details to Sky why what they are doing is unlawful, what input I have attempted to give Sky to help them meet their responsibilities under the Equality Act and OFCOMs recent consultation re amending their code of practice for electronic program guides. The consultation is quite interesting and to a large extent it seems OFCOM agrees with many of us but there are areas that need improving to make it less likely for providers to avoid making the adjustments. I'm including a link to the consultation below. I'd point out that in the Responses section I could not see a response from Sky even though all of main providers have responded. I've not had an opportunity to look at the responses yet other than RNIBs which is excellent and I intend to make contact with RNIB next week to see if they will support my action. I have also been contacted by a barrister and law lecturer who has kindly offered his support. Next I will give brief details of m arguments for the action. The consultation can be found at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-2/epg-accessibility.
Can I point out that while communicating with Sky regarding this, I have always remained polite, willing to be informed of Sky's efforts to make the necessary changes and I've done my best to give constructive support in helping them make the necessary changes by giving my opinion of how the platform could be made more accessible, giving brief details of case studies where talking EPGs etc have been implemented and I've offered to be involved in beta testin future changes to the platform with an understanding of requirements for non-disclosure.In a hope that appropriate changes may be in the pipeline I asked them for a outline of their roadmap to implement appropriate changes and it was made clear to me by both the accessibility team and their New Media team that they are currently unaware of any implementation of such changes and if there were any plans they felt they would be aware of them.
I need to clarify whether OFCOMs code of practice would superceed the requirements stated in the Equality Act but I think that would be unlikely. The two main areas of the law I believe Sky have been unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 are as follows (I've included a link for each which explains each):
1. Indirect discrimination https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/indirect-discrimination/.
2. Failure to make a reasonable adjustment https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/duty-to-make-reasonable-adjustments-for-disabled-people/.
I do want to outline my reasons for why both of these parts of the act have been breached by Sky but I will do this when I get some more time but hopefully I think it will be obvious to many of you. Regarding the Failure to make a reasonable adjust though, it is not possible to use the Sky Q app to see what is recorded on your box without a Sky multiroom subscription. This subscription costs an additional ÂŁ12 a month. I do not want multiroom functionality and only want to use the app to have some level of access to the recording on the box and only to facilitate me being able to play the recordings on the same box. I asked Sky if they would credit my account each month for the ÂŁ12 as a reasonable adjustment and even though I stated it would be as a reasonable adjustment, they have refused and confirmed this in writing. Sky have argued that smart phone apps are an reasonable adjustment and therefore should not need to make the EPG talk. However the Sky Q app is useless without the additional subscription and even with the subscription it's use is extremely limited and any work around to manage the programs on the box are very complicated relative to simply using the box for a sighted person. Happy to hear everyones thoughts but please keep it friendly. Everyones views are equaly important as we all have different skills, abilities and experiences so no solution is one size fits all.
Would anyone else interpret Virgins response below to suggest that they aren't even in the early stages of implementing a talking EPG?
Question 2 (Rolling out to all TV receivers) - Do you agree that the proposed features should be rolled out on all new models of TV receivers commencing
development from when the changes to the EPG Code that we are proposing enter into force, and any subsequent models (using reasonable endeavours, so far
as practicable)? If not, please explain why you do not agree giving reasons.
We note that the proposed changes to the EPG Code will apply to âall TV receivers commencing development from when the proposed changes to the EPG Code
are implemented, and any subsequent models4â. If Ofcom decides to proceed with its plans, we consider it important that Ofcom defines clearly what it means
for a TV receiver to be âcommencing developmentâ, as this will potentially impact receivers being developed in the next few months (assuming Ofcom issues
a final statement in Spring 2018).
Development of a device or new product can take years from initial discussions to product launch and therefore it is difficult to pinpoint when product
development commences. In keeping with the spirit of the EPG Code, Ofcom should be looking over a number of years if there has been progress on accessibility
in the round rather than looking at a particular point in time and overly focussing on the start date of a productâs development.
We consider that to make this requirement practicable for industry, the definition of a TV receiver âcommencing developmentâ should only encompass the
launch of new products into the market and specifically exclude incremental software upgrades to existing products already in the market.
Question 3 (Reporting requirement) - Do you agree with our revised proposal to retain and amend paragraph 10 of the current EPG Code, which requires EPG
licensees to produce an annual statement regarding accessibility? If not, please explain why you do not agree giving reasons.
Whilst Virgin Media supports the idea that EPG providers produce an annual EPG Report to explain compliance with the EPG Code, many of the details relating
to technical development and milestones to explain our approach will be confidential and not disclosable to consumers. This may therefore underestimate
the ongoing work we are investing into making our products and services accessible.
Could we politely ask that people remember the scope of AppleVis when posting to this thread, as discussion of set-top boxes and the software running on them falls outside of that scope; and this is where discussion now seems to be heading.
Hi. Of course I'm happy to respect the view of the editorial team but I do feel the discussions we've had so far are relevant. The issue regarding set top box accessibility is directly impacted by the inaccessibility of the Sky Q app and visa versa. In order to progress the accessibility and functionality of the Sky Q app I feel the lack of accessibility of the box is a key argument as to the need for the app to be fully accessible and functional to enable control of the box. Sky have already confirmed there are no plans to intergrate any remote control functionality to control the box in to the app.
You make a good point that makes some flexibility appropriate here. All we ask is that people don't stretch things too far away from the original topic of this post and the general scope of the website.
So as to debunk mystery here, I am the barrister and law lecturer to whom Peter refers. My preliminary view is that there is a case to answer here, though the Chinese proverb that you should never go into litigation if you know you are right is worth remembering. To the Applevis editorial team, I think the issue here is that the apps and the set-top boxes march hand in hand. Sky accessibility can only be viewed from an holistic perspective, so it's not surprising that there is some comment on set-top boxes. At the end of the day, if Sky Q were to become accessible due to changes to the box, I don't think anyone would quarrel with that merely because the changes were not to the app. meanwhile I think it's very important we keep this topic current and active - Sky Access should have the opportunity to respond if they are able to.
Hi all. Just to update you re my on-going action re Sky accessibility. Having being advised to do so by the Equality Advisory and Support Service (part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission) and RNIB, I sent a letter of formal complaint of indirect discrimination and failure to make reasonable adjustments as set out in the Equality Act 2010, and provided detailed evidence of how their actions are unlawful. On Friday I received a call from Sky's Priority Customer team, based at Jeremy Darroch's (CEO of Sky) office. They are directly answeriable to the executive team. In addition to being assured they are thoroughly investigating all issues I've raised, They are liaising with their legal team who are considering Sky's position and not surprisingly they are a little reluctant to give me any more information at this time. They have issued me with a dead-lock letter which means I am able to also approach CISAS (dispute resolution) ) to consider all of the facts and CISAS are able to make legally binding decisions as to what Sky will have to do if anything such as paying compensation, making changes to services etc. I'm speaking with RNIB's legal team next week to update them as there a couple of things I'm unsure of such as whether it is beneficial to take action as a group or individually, at what stage it should go to court etc. Court would be the last option as this can take a long time and would create a whole load more issues for me to deal with. The positive thing is that all of the organisations and individuals I have approached for help and advice have agreed it is clear there is some case to answer. For those who still believe Sky do not have a case to answer I've put two links below. First giving an explanation of In-direct discrimination and the other on Failure to make a reasonable adjustment. In-direct discrimination; https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/indirect-discrimination/. Failure to make a reasonable adjustment; https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/duty-to-make-reasonable-adjustments-for-disabled-people/. I will update the forum as the case progresses but understandably there may be some information I cannot share or may need to wait to do so.
Hi. Just a quick update. I had a call from Sky's customer priority team last night. After a conference call purely to discuss my letter and involving Sky's Compliance Director, they are devising a plan to implement the reasonable adjustments I have requested or at least implement temporary work arounds. My most urgent request was to not charge blind customers who only pay for Sky Multiroom just to enable better use of the app to know what is recorded on the box. It's looking like this will be resolved over the next few weeks and no longer a question of if but when. This should happen in the next couple of weeks. My second was incorporating similar remote functionality to the app as was included in the Sky Plus app. I will be receiving a letter from Sky's legal team in the next fourteen days to provide interim resolutions for the other more complex issues such as making the box itself accessible. I was also advised Apple have contacted Sky in response to some feedback I provided them and Apple and Sky are working together to resolve these issues. It's nice to see apple being proactive in contacting developers directly to resolve issues. More updates to come soon but failure is not an option.
well this is positive, but are sky just dealing with your complaint specifically regarding sky q, or are they intending to make improvements for normal sky plus users? as we gave them loads of feedback on how normal sky plus could be improved, and although of course its great to see them making sky q accessible improvements to sky plus would be welcome, we shouldn't let them think that just improving one app is sufficient as they seem to clearly believe at the moment.
Hi all. Apologies for the slow updates but this is a lengthy process which is not yet over. I'm going to copy a letter I've received from Sky's legal team but needless to say, I have a lot of questions. Please do not all start calling Sky customer services to ask for a refund of sky multiroom charges as I'm trying to clarify if and how sky intend to make blind customers aware of this etc. Please be aware in my grievance I haven't just focused on Sky Q as I too have been there for all of the other issues relating to other Sky services including Sky+. See letter below and more to follow soon. This is now being escalated to CISAS who have 20 day to consider my grievance and their decision and any recommendations that come from it are legally binding and Sky have said they will abide by them. I do not have to accept the decision of CISAS and can progress this to court if I feel it's. Disappointingly only one person off here offered any kind of input or help but I'm guessing those affected will be wanting their refunds.
Dear Mr. Holdstock
Reply to formal complaint of alleged indirect discrimination and failure to make a reasonable adjustment
We refer to letter of 27th May 2018 and further to your recent discussions with our Customer Priority Department. While we have taken full note and careful consideration of your comments, we do not intend in this letter to reply directly to all of your allegations against Sky, and its alleged failure to comply with its legal obligations to you. We understand that your core concern is to be involved with Skyâs continued development of features and services (in particular relating to Sky Q) to improve the quality of service Sky offers to its blind and partially sighted customers.
While we deny any discrimination in the Sky Q services we make available to blind people or any breaches of relevant Ofcom requirements, we acknowledge that there are opportunities to make certain aspects of our services even better and we are committed to doing so. In particular, we are making certain functionality of the Sky Q Multiscreen subscription available without additional charge for our blind customers, so that they may properly navigate a list of their Sky+ recordings via the Sky Q app. In addition, we will be providing greater awareness to our customers of the Voice Search and Voice Control button on the Sky Q remote control. By pressing down this button (which is on the top right of the remote control) customers can ask to be taken to specific programmes and/or Sky+ recordings they have made. While this is not a complete solution to the text to speak issue you identify, it does provide a mechanism to play content on the main screen, while we develop a comprehensive and fully integrated approach to meeting this challenge.
In addition to the measures set out above, we would like to invite you (at our expense) to visit our offices to give you the opportunity to meet the product teams to discuss your experience with them and share your insight on high quality, customer-focused, high tech solutions for our visually impaired customers.
We would also like to offer you a full refund of amounts paid by you to date for your Sky Q Multiscreen subscription.
Yours sincerely,
Rafat Rasul
Paralegal, TMT & Litigation
Just my reply to Sky's last letter. Happy to hear your thoughts.
Dear Mr Rasul
Thank you for your letter dated 12 July which despite my prior request for it to be sent by email as I am blind and therefore unable to read a printed letter, I actually only received an email copy on 17 July and when speaking to your colleagues on the Priority Customer team only yesterday, a number of them confirmed that they had spoken to your team and as of yesterday the letter hadnât been sent. I clarify this only for the purposes of keeping a full timeline of events).
I will do my best to cover points made in your letter in order;
⢠âwe do not intend in this letter to reply directly to all of your allegations against Sky,â â will I receive a further reply re my other issues or is there good reason why you are not able to address these?
⢠âWe understand that your core concern is to be involved with Skyâs continued development of features and services (in particular relating to Sky Q) to improve the quality of service Sky offers to its blind and partially sighted customers.â â This was not my core concern at all and my enthusiasm to be able to assist with addressing accessibility issues on the Sky platform was purely to support Sky as a typical blind user of the system and for me not to seem like someone criticising without showing a willingness to aid the changes needed.
⢠âIn particular, we are making certain functionality of the Sky Q Multiscreen subscription available without additional charge for our blind customers, so that they may properly navigate a list of their Sky+ recordings via the Sky Q app.â â Genius idea, who came up with that? That would be my idea and for six months I asked for this and despite asking for it as a reasonable adjustment staff on both the Accessibility team and the Priority Customer team insisted that it would not be possible. Even when I attempted to make a complaint, an Accessibility team manager (Careon) replied on 8 May by email making it quite clear âthis is Skyâs position on the matterâ and giving me the impression that this position would not change. â This is the failure to make a reasonable adjustment. I acknowledge that it may not have been obvious for Sky to anticipate that such an adjustment would help, but once I requested this as an adjustment Sky cannot claim that it wasnât reasonable for them to know this.
⢠âIn addition, we will be providing greater awareness to our customers of the Voice Search and Voice Control button on the Sky Q remote control.â â I mentioned the issue of Voice Recognition and the problem of silent messages appearing on the screen which then stop Voice Recognition and other remote functions from working. I suggested a simple bleep to let the user know some kind of interaction is needed would be helpful. No mention of this and this could make Voice Recognition an unsuitable option for those completely blind and less technically minded.
⢠In regard to your invitation to come to your offices, meet the product teams etc, I would very much like to accept that offer and I look forward to hearing from someone to arrange this.
⢠In regard to a refund of my Sky Q Multiroom subscription, while I am grateful for this, I am disappointed that no offer of reasonable compensation for the significant stress, use of my time (literally tens of hours), the impact of offensive statements made by Sky employees directly relating to my request for a reasonable adjustment due to my disability such as âwell you chose to have Sky and other services are availableâ and âWhy would we give you Sky Multiroom for free when we wouldnât do it for anyone elseâ. The latter statement came from a manager on the Accessibility team which I feel makes it even worse. Indeed, to make matters worse there was no reference to these allegations in your reply. Did anyone actually listen to the phone calls as I suggested? Do they still exist or has the length of time passed meant that they have been deleted?
Also, how does Sky intend to make blind customers aware of this offer and will the offer be backdated as you have for me?
I appreciate there are several points you may want to come back to clarify and so Iâm open to still communicating and attempting to resolve this matter. However, in the meantime I will be escalating my case to CISAS as I feel they will be better placed to get to the bottom of some of my concerns and make an appropriate and independent judgement.
Given the lengthy nature of this process so far, I would kindly request a reply by email within seven days from my sending this email.
Hi Peter, that is good news from sky at least they are starting to take you seriously.
as regards your point about silent messages on screen interrupting remote function I have found this to be the case as well when low battery warnings come up on screen for the sky remote with sky plus.
As to only one person offering you help with your fight with sky, I suspect the reason for this is probably the vast majority of people on applevis are American citizens so this is probably of no interest to them. I myself would be happy to help if I can but I have no legal expertise and I am not the main bill payer in my house, but I would certainly be very happy to read draft letters, contribute thoughts and ideas, and suggest points to be raised with sky when you eventually meet them. Or if you were up for it and sky was I would even be happy to join you on the visit to sky to contribute thoughts and ideas.
Hi, just thought I'd bump this thread to see if any advancements had been made. Currently looking at several alternatives for TV such as Youview and Sky Q and interested to hear if one might be better than the other with the IOS apps.
I two would be interested in an update, and if things have changed, as the original post in this topic was written about 3 years back. our house is again thinking about switching over to q, so thoughts on accessibility of q vs plus would be welcome. the original post states that you can't manage recordings from the planner, I am interested if this is still the case, and if there are other disadvantages I might suffer from moving to q, or conversely advantages. I know that I can't change channel within the app and so have to use the remote, but this isn't a big issue for me personally as I never watch anything live. I am not two keen on having all the house recordings managed centrally but that's one issue.
Hi. I'm pleased to say an update in December has made the app very accessible. There are aspects of the app which aren't very intuative and playback controls once video has started playing in the app aren't accessible. However, I and a few others have met with Sky and I'm pleased to say that this should be resolved very soon. For now, the app is very usable but remote control of the box is not available nor does it look like it will be in the future. I'm not able to go in to any details but after beginning the action I did against sky, I'm happy for now that the right steps are being taken to make the platform accessible and things are being put in place to enable them to take onboard and respond to disabled customers feedback much easier. I don't have time to explain the best way to use the app at the minute but if I get chance I'll post some helpful hints when I can. The main issue before was the menu which caused voice over a great dealof issues but now, once you get used to how it works it works well.
Hi Peter, when you say you can't go into details, did they get you to sign a non disclosure agreement or something?
is it going to be made possible to play programs back directly on the tv? as I understand it at the moment you can only watch programs back directly on an ios device, whereas sighted users can actually select to play programs directly through the tv if using the box.
As I understand it currently if I want to get audio through my tv of a program I will have to airplay it which sounds fiddly.
I would like your view though given that I am on plus currently is q over all a step forward or backward in terms of accessibility or is it simply going sideways?
I guess I am trying to work out if I should really try to persuade my dad to stick with plus given that we have no immediate need to upgrade, though he thinks he will save money if he does.
also, is managing recordings through the app now accessible, I mean can I delete things if I want to, as the original post on this topic says that this can't be done, bulk delete would certainly be nice but I doubt that will happen.
Hi, Somewhere back in this thread I read something about needing multi room, or Q experience, or whatever Sky are calling it to receive certain functionality. Is this still the case? I ask as, if I have to get multi room anyway, I might go for the 2TB for the slightly increased setup fee as it includes Dolby Atmos whereas the 1TB does not. There was also mention that multi room would be free for blind users of the service? Is this still the case?
Sorry to dump all these questions on you all... I'm an utter skin flint and want to be certain I'm getting the best possible version without paying for nonsense that I don't really need. :)
Hello. As far as I know multiview thing is still annoying for the visually impaired. I had an issue with sky about 12 months ago as they failed to tell me that I required two boxes to use my app I eat the Sky Q app. On the last circumstance I got it for one euro for the next 12 months. As I say sky failed to inform me that I required it and I was cancelling my second box. As I did not need to use it. So they made me a deal and I got it for one euro for the next 12 months but no on the 23rd of this January. My 12 months is up and I have recently rung them up. And I rang the accessibility in sky and they said nothing about me getting the second box for free. But I cannot negotiate until the 23rd of this month when my contract finishes. So hopefully I will be asking for the second box free as a vision impaired sky customer but as I say they have not told me that I cannot use it. And yes you do need to have the two boxes the multiview to use the Sky Q app i.e. to see what you have recorded and stuff like that. You can still record stuff but you cannot go into the app on your phone and see what you have recorded or anything like that because if you cancel your second box the app becomes redundant and the app at the moment is quite accessible
I just spoke with sky regarding this issue of only. being able to tell what has been downloaded if you have the multiscreen. The accessibility department, though understanding, had no knowledge of discounts for visually impaired people for the sake of making the experience more workable. I'm unsure what to do. ÂŁ12 a month merely to know what I've recorded is a lot of money and without it, I imagine the use of the whole system is going to be frustrating. I only want it on one screen anyway! I'm not even getting a free mini box.
Getting the IOS app to fully function requires this subscription, which I feel is a little off.
(Included reference to the IOS app just so we don't get told it is off topic again ;)
if you only want it on one screen why not just stick with sky plus? personally I think q seems to have disadvantages compared to plus, for example not being able to play back directly to my tv but having to airplay audio from my phone to the box which will then send it to the tv.
I think given the choice I would stick with the old plus system.
though of course sky don't really seem to be supporting the plus app at all these days in terms of updates, features etc.
Correct me if I"m wrong, but the Sky+ is for app is for the Sky HD box? If so, that is no longer supported. All new customers only have the choice between the 1 and 2 TB sky q boxes. :(
your correct in that sky q and plus use separate apps, but it was said earlier in this thread that sky still offered plus boxes and recommended them for blind customers and that in fact they still manufactured plus boxes.
Of course I have no idea if this is still the case.
I believe that comment was made a while back and it would seem that sky has indeed stopped providing SKY HD boxes. I am hoping that the Q App along with the voice search on the remote will be useful, but yeah... Much of the time it is better to go for the legacy equipment that has had most of its bugs shaken out.
Unfortunately. As I said in my own problem. My contract is up at the end of January. I therefore have to purchase the next 12 months for âŹ16 I have to purchase the multi viewing package. As I do not need or require a second box. It has not been turned on for the last eight months in the kitchen. But I have to have it due to if I do not have a second multi viewing box I cannot use the Sky Q app to see what I have recorded last week. As I would not remember what I have recorded to even go ask the sky Q Remelle control voice option to say play a certain sure as I say I wouldâve forgotten what I have recorded last week or even last month. With the sky Q I can go in and out and at least see what I have recorded i.e. movies or TV series is and then go and ask at the sky remote to play them. But this is a very big inconvenience on my behalf and unfortunately I would have to purchase the box for the next 12 months at âŹ16 a month which is a lot of bloody money for a waste of bloody time.
Hi Oliver and all. Just to clarify, while Sky Q is the default for new customers, you can still opt instead for Sky+ for accessibility reasons if you wish.
To do this however, you need to speak to our Accessibility team, as our general Sales teams do not have access to this option. If you have already placed an order with the Sales team for Sky Q, you can still call Accessibility and have it switched to Sky+.
It's a personal judgement call honestly. Both iOS apps are accessible, but the Sky+ app allows you to manage your Planner and play from the app to the TV. Sky Q though is the more modern platform, with more scope for future enhancements.
nice to see sky is still keeping an eye on applevis, I get that q is more modern, but why doesn't the app support directly starting to play programs back directly from the box to the tv, to my mind only being able to play back on an ios device is a big step backward especially when sighted customers can play things directly back from the tv.
I also haven't been able to establish is managing recordings through the q app possible or not? I mean deleting things etc.
it also does seem unfair that owners of single q boxes are being forced to take out multi room just to use the app, this wouldn't apply to me, but it does seem a real shortcoming of the system.
I would still be in favor of legislation to force sky and other companies to actually take accessibility seriously and not just an optional extra that they will work on when they feel like it.
Hi, I worry that I'd be losing out on the more future proof hardware. I think it's good that this is offered, however I am going to cross my fingers and go for the Sky Q box in the hope that it will evolve, though I will also continue to ask for a reduction in the multi screen as, for the stated reasons, we shouldn't have to pay extra for the equivalent access to the same system. Would you be kind enough to pass this on?
Ironically, I've not even tried the Sky Q app yet as need a sky Q box to make it work, even a little.
Hi @Alex. Indeed, the Sky Q app was designed with a different use case in mind. But we are very much aware of the impact this had on visually impaired customers, and exploring long term options.
No, if you have the MultiScreen subscription, you can view what's in the Planner, called Recordings in Sky Q, and download and watch them, but you cannot delete them from the box.
Hi @Oliver. Glad you're looking at joining us. My recommendation is to go straight to our Accessibility team to place your order if possible, so you can discuss your options.
If you would like to get an idea of how the Sky Q app works, you can download the Sky Go app, which is almost identical in design to the sky Q app. Of course you will not be able to watch anything, but you can explore the app.
Hi thanks for clarifying that, so how is someone who is blind supposed to manage there own recordings?
please don't tell me at the moment they will have to ask someone sighted to do it for them?
if so I am utterly amazed and will be doing my best to make sure we stay on the plus system. Managing recordings through the remote is all very well but if you have months to scroll back through this doesn't seem practical, and in my case because it would potentially be a two box household I would be at real risk of accidentally deleting recordings made by other members of the household because of course all recordings are stored centrally, and the point of q is correct me if I am wrong but I could decide to watch anybodies recordings in the house because of them all being stored in one place. this of course also has the consequence that I couldn't even memorize the order of recordings because knowing my luck other people would add extra things to the list.
Hi @Alex. The approach some users are taking is to use the app as a guide to tell them what is in the Recordings section, and the order they appear in, and then learn the button sequence on the remote.
If you do delete somebody's recording by mistake, they can recover them from the deleted items section.
For playback, you do also have the option of voice control, a feature which is being enhanced over time.
As stated earlier, we are aware that this is far from an optimal experience, but it is the partial workaround which some customers are employing. Others have opted to remain on Sky+ and the Sky+ app for the time being.
If you can look into this it would be very good. I thought previously in a long before comment. That somebody had this issue and sky had said that anybody would a visually impaired meant. Was in titled to get the second sky Q box free. Would a free subscription I also contacted sky accessibility. Last week and they knew nothing about this. As my contact sorry contract will be up on the 23rd of January. Whereupon. I will be forced to subscribe for another 12 months of pain âŹ16 for a box which lies idle in it once kitchen. So I can have access like every other person can to their own box and be independent so I can use the app and not called upon sighted people to record our delete programs for me
Michael did you see above? you can't delete recordings using the app, the second box only grants the privilege of you being able to look at your recordings so you will have to try to fight with the remote to delete anything. and of course if you accidentally delete a recording I don't think you have the option to recover it through the app, at least plus doesn't have this feature so I assume q doesn't as well.
Yup I hundred percent forgot about deleting as Iâve always said about the new âsky Q app. They went 100% backwards from the old sky plus app. The only way I can go in and watch a show to the app on the sky Q is I would go open the app. Go into recent. If I was looking for my recent Coronation Street episode. I would have to count over as it goes in a grid of three. So I will count over three. And then go down County getting go down count again so if my Coronation Street was the 12th icon. In the sky Q app. I would then proceed to press record app button on the remote control which opens up the settings in the sky Q Record page on the TV. I would then press over and hopefully Condover tree down and go to the 12th icon which hopefully is the Coronation Street icon press okay and then play Carnation Street. More than likely I have always gotten it wrong and it was either left or right of this. So as I say it is a Dickensian old unfortunately embarrassing way that I have to do it but it is the only option I have to be independent from everyone else and do it on my own. So no I have the privilege of King an extra âŹ16 a month to have this in Barrison degree heading way of doing this on my own to be independent so cheers for telling me and remind me I cannot delete from the sky Q hopefully sky will rectify these big mirrors sorry errors
So after playing with my folks Sky+ HD box and the IOS app, I found that it was pretty good actually. Is there a means of turning Audio description on through the Sky+ app for recorded items? Or, if not, for live ones?
My main question is, considering that Sky Q is obviously woefully inadequate when it comes to accessibility making it necessary for blind people to pay extra for the privilege of, well, being blind and being unable to use the service properly... If I, as a new customer, were to go for the Sky+ package and therefore the Sky+ app which is the accessible solution, would I get a discount from the current packages and would it be free to upgrade to the Sky Q package once the functionality of the box is accessible via the app or otherwise?
Seems a bit rough if I'd first have to have the older equipment and then pay the premium price for upgrade at some point in the future merely because of the failings of Sky, IE, I don't want to pay for something that is Sky's responsibility and ultimately, fault.
Just wondering if people have considered now tv as an alternative to sky q? I have to say I really don't like the thought of switching to q, so have begun to investigate now tv, but it seems very hard to get up to date information as regards its accessibility or lack of. I am currently looking into boxes and other methods of receiving. any thoughts about now tv would certainly be welcome.
The app is dreadful on Ios with many of the buttons unlabeled. Not that it really matters for us but it's not 4 k yet even though the latest box supports it for other services such as netflix and youtube. Finally there is no audio description.
Hi oliver thanks for your thoughts, the button labeling is certainly one thing to put me off, are you sure though that now tv doesn't offer audio description as when I have googled trying to find up to date information which is very difficult I came across several posts on there forums from people complaining about audio description being activated and not sure how to turn it off.
If we were going to get it at all I think we would be receiving it through boxes, but obviously that doesn't matter if the apps accessibility is bad. grr looks like I am really stuck then as I really don't want to go to q but dad is thinking about it simply because he says he doesn't need a lot of what he pays for at the moment from sky and they are not very flexible in the packages they offer.
He is also considering virgin but I have heard bad things about there accessibility as well.
I'm really pleased that this discussion has been revitalised with a lot of comment in the last few days. it's very important and the best way to get some progress is to make sure Sky know that a significant number of us still feel strongly about this issue.
@SkyAccess I've always tried to be fair in my commentary on this issue, so thanks for Sky's engagement with the discussion and for what appear to be significant improvements with the app. i have to add my voice to those who are disappointed, however, that we have to resort to work-arounds such as guessing how many times to press a button on a remote so as to be able to delete recordings from the planner. I pay a lot of money to sky, and while i don't expect everything to be perfect, nor does it seem right that we should have to resort to work-arounds of this sort to perform a pretty basic function. I hope it is being treated as high priority to fix this because I also agree with those who are saying that having to settle for legacy equipment because the new kit isn't quite up to scratch yet is unsatisfactory.
Hi bingo, not only that but remember if your blind and using the app we can't play a program back directly to the tv, we have to watch on a device, then air play the audio to our tv, which is fine say if we are on our own, but what if we want to watch tv with someone sighted? frankly we shouldn't have to ask them to set a program playing directly on the tv, as obviously airplay can only send the audio to the tv, not to mention of course it will cause phones and other devices to run out of battery quicker.
I believe the issues with Audio Description and it turning on are only with recorded programs through the sky+ HD box. My understanding is that there is no AD on now TV, and I can't imagine that has changed, but I'd love to be wrong. With the Sky Q box, however, it is possible to record any AD program and choose to have it on or off during the playback. With the Sky+HD box it is recorded as is.
I'm going to have to go for the Sky HD box I think and hope that I'm not charged an arm and a leg when they finally make the Sky Q system half way pleasant to use.
Hi all, some further responses.
@Oliver - The Sky+ app does not have the ability to toggle audio description on and off, it needs to be done on the box, though is relatively easy, just a couple of button presses. This suggestion has been registered, though the app is currently being maintained rather than being actively developed.
On Sky+, a recorded programme will have AD if AD was switched on when the recording was made, and it cannot be toggled on or off in the recording. On Sky Q, it can be toggled in the recording.
There is currently no policy in place to provide discounts for Sky Q upgrades. If this changes I will let you know.
@Alex - Now TV on iOS is currently not very accessible with VoiceOver I'm afraid, though we have been engaging well with the product teams in recent months, so I am positive about it in the longer term.
On Apple TV however, it is accessible.
Audio description is currently not supported on Now TV, as is the case with On Demand content on Sky, and content on the Sky Go app. It is our ambition to develop this feature, and when it comes to Sky On Demand and Sky Go, it should also come to Now TV. I am not though in a position to guarantee if or when this will happen.
We have a huge range of AD on our broadcast Sky TV channels, and the Sky+ and Sky Q boxes also support AD when provided by other broadcasters.
@Bingo - Thanks for the comment. Yes, absolutely, the impact of this is not lost on us.
@Peter - Thanks for your earlier comment. I'm glad you found your visit useful, and I know we did too. Sorry I am based at a different site so wasn't able to meet you myself.
Comments
well sky did develop the sky
well sky did develop the sky talker, basically a usb device that plugs into a sky box, which gave access to the tv guide, channel listings etc directly from the box with speech. but this was about 10 years back, and I don't know if its compatible with sky q, also, though I heard from many people that it was unstable and crashed frequently. they developed it with the rnib then from what I have read abandoned it by no putting out updates, basically thinking oh we made this product job done.
Sky Talker
I had one of those upstairs. It was alright but you couldn't access the guide, only listen to the names of channels and info on what's on at that moment. The Sky Q stuff is entirely different - the main box is the hub for families usually to stash hours of content. That's why I like it because I don't recall ever having clashed recordings and such like the old sky plus boxes. I also don't think Sky will do much with plus now because don't new users get Q as standard, not sure about that though. I got Sky Q because i'd been with Sky for over 10 years and they offered it to me for cheap.
apparently there
apparently there accessibility team still recommends blind customers go with plus for ease of access, and they are still making new boxes. I don't think sky are doing anything with either q or plus, instead they seem intent in pushing out regular updates to there account maintenance app my sky. the fact q is a central hub is another reason I don't like the idea of it, I don't like the thought of other people I am in the house with being able to snoop through what I record and judge me because of my tv viewing habits at least with plus and my own box I have total privacy. also if all recordings are stored centrally that could make it annoying for me to locate what I want to watch I could see it easily getting very crowded and messy.
Didn't know that about the accessibility team
For me, the worries about Sky Q's hub recording things that I might be ashamed of doesn't really apply because I always like the documentary type things - I got stalked by my satanic nutter boyfriend kind of things, general crime type stuff. My partner's the one that watches soaps and all of the rest of it - it's not too difficult to navigate really considering. I know what you're trying to say but I remember once that the box had like 25 plus rows of recordings and I got through what was necessary at that time. It's not a race Those boxes store so much on them you're not going to upset anyone. I even had to remove some things today because I got entirely bored of the series and didn't want to waste the space. It's entirely up to you though, we do things in iOS very differently. I'm a spacial thinker which is ironic because my mobility is terrible outdoors and yet you like the single window approach. I personally like splitting the screen and stuff, switching between applications on the other side. I can't, as it appears you can, work entirely on an iPhone.
Sky Talker
As already mentioned, Sky Talker literally did only give you the names of programmes on now and and the next hour and the synopsis of what you were watching. You could not navigate your list of recordings so you'd still have to play each of your recordings until you played the one you wanted. I recall when the HD boxes rolled out Sky Talker would not work with them and I don't believe it was ever updated to work with them so I'm pretty confident it won't work with Sky Q.don't think it ever worked on the HD boxes
Action against Sky
I've been monitoring the forum over the past few days but not had chance to answer some of the points made regarding whether taking action against Sky is the right thing to do or not so I thought over the next few posts I would give my reasons for why I feel it's necessary. For a number of reasons but not least due to the amount of detail I'm attempting to go in when contacting Sky, it's taken me quite a while to get my final formal complaint letter put together. This letter details to Sky why what they are doing is unlawful, what input I have attempted to give Sky to help them meet their responsibilities under the Equality Act and OFCOMs recent consultation re amending their code of practice for electronic program guides. The consultation is quite interesting and to a large extent it seems OFCOM agrees with many of us but there are areas that need improving to make it less likely for providers to avoid making the adjustments. I'm including a link to the consultation below. I'd point out that in the Responses section I could not see a response from Sky even though all of main providers have responded. I've not had an opportunity to look at the responses yet other than RNIBs which is excellent and I intend to make contact with RNIB next week to see if they will support my action. I have also been contacted by a barrister and law lecturer who has kindly offered his support. Next I will give brief details of m arguments for the action. The consultation can be found at https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-2/epg-accessibility.
Reasoning and for and approach to taking action
Can I point out that while communicating with Sky regarding this, I have always remained polite, willing to be informed of Sky's efforts to make the necessary changes and I've done my best to give constructive support in helping them make the necessary changes by giving my opinion of how the platform could be made more accessible, giving brief details of case studies where talking EPGs etc have been implemented and I've offered to be involved in beta testin future changes to the platform with an understanding of requirements for non-disclosure.In a hope that appropriate changes may be in the pipeline I asked them for a outline of their roadmap to implement appropriate changes and it was made clear to me by both the accessibility team and their New Media team that they are currently unaware of any implementation of such changes and if there were any plans they felt they would be aware of them.
I need to clarify whether OFCOMs code of practice would superceed the requirements stated in the Equality Act but I think that would be unlikely. The two main areas of the law I believe Sky have been unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 are as follows (I've included a link for each which explains each):
1. Indirect discrimination
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/indirect-discrimination/.
2. Failure to make a reasonable adjustment
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/duty-to-make-reasonable-adjustments-for-disabled-people/.
I do want to outline my reasons for why both of these parts of the act have been breached by Sky but I will do this when I get some more time but hopefully I think it will be obvious to many of you. Regarding the Failure to make a reasonable adjust though, it is not possible to use the Sky Q app to see what is recorded on your box without a Sky multiroom subscription. This subscription costs an additional ÂŁ12 a month. I do not want multiroom functionality and only want to use the app to have some level of access to the recording on the box and only to facilitate me being able to play the recordings on the same box. I asked Sky if they would credit my account each month for the ÂŁ12 as a reasonable adjustment and even though I stated it would be as a reasonable adjustment, they have refused and confirmed this in writing. Sky have argued that smart phone apps are an reasonable adjustment and therefore should not need to make the EPG talk. However the Sky Q app is useless without the additional subscription and even with the subscription it's use is extremely limited and any work around to manage the programs on the box are very complicated relative to simply using the box for a sighted person. Happy to hear everyones thoughts but please keep it friendly. Everyones views are equaly important as we all have different skills, abilities and experiences so no solution is one size fits all.
Virgins response to the consultation
Would anyone else interpret Virgins response below to suggest that they aren't even in the early stages of implementing a talking EPG?
Question 2 (Rolling out to all TV receivers) - Do you agree that the proposed features should be rolled out on all new models of TV receivers commencing
development from when the changes to the EPG Code that we are proposing enter into force, and any subsequent models (using reasonable endeavours, so far
as practicable)? If not, please explain why you do not agree giving reasons.
We note that the proposed changes to the EPG Code will apply to âall TV receivers commencing development from when the proposed changes to the EPG Code
are implemented, and any subsequent models4â. If Ofcom decides to proceed with its plans, we consider it important that Ofcom defines clearly what it means
for a TV receiver to be âcommencing developmentâ, as this will potentially impact receivers being developed in the next few months (assuming Ofcom issues
a final statement in Spring 2018).
Development of a device or new product can take years from initial discussions to product launch and therefore it is difficult to pinpoint when product
development commences. In keeping with the spirit of the EPG Code, Ofcom should be looking over a number of years if there has been progress on accessibility
in the round rather than looking at a particular point in time and overly focussing on the start date of a productâs development.
We consider that to make this requirement practicable for industry, the definition of a TV receiver âcommencing developmentâ should only encompass the
launch of new products into the market and specifically exclude incremental software upgrades to existing products already in the market.
Question 3 (Reporting requirement) - Do you agree with our revised proposal to retain and amend paragraph 10 of the current EPG Code, which requires EPG
licensees to produce an annual statement regarding accessibility? If not, please explain why you do not agree giving reasons.
Whilst Virgin Media supports the idea that EPG providers produce an annual EPG Report to explain compliance with the EPG Code, many of the details relating
to technical development and milestones to explain our approach will be confidential and not disclosable to consumers. This may therefore underestimate
the ongoing work we are investing into making our products and services accessible.
A polite reminder to stay within the scope of AppleVis
Could we politely ask that people remember the scope of AppleVis when posting to this thread, as discussion of set-top boxes and the software running on them falls outside of that scope; and this is where discussion now seems to be heading.
Thank you.
The AppleVis Editorial Team
re Polite reminder
Hi. Of course I'm happy to respect the view of the editorial team but I do feel the discussions we've had so far are relevant. The issue regarding set top box accessibility is directly impacted by the inaccessibility of the Sky Q app and visa versa. In order to progress the accessibility and functionality of the Sky Q app I feel the lack of accessibility of the box is a key argument as to the need for the app to be fully accessible and functional to enable control of the box. Sky have already confirmed there are no plans to intergrate any remote control functionality to control the box in to the app.
In reply to Peter
Peter,
You make a good point that makes some flexibility appropriate here. All we ask is that people don't stretch things too far away from the original topic of this post and the general scope of the website.
The AppleVis Editorial Team
Thanks
Thanks for understanding and I'll be mindful of what you've said when posting. I'm also mindful of not posting too much.
I am the barrister
So as to debunk mystery here, I am the barrister and law lecturer to whom Peter refers. My preliminary view is that there is a case to answer here, though the Chinese proverb that you should never go into litigation if you know you are right is worth remembering. To the Applevis editorial team, I think the issue here is that the apps and the set-top boxes march hand in hand. Sky accessibility can only be viewed from an holistic perspective, so it's not surprising that there is some comment on set-top boxes. At the end of the day, if Sky Q were to become accessible due to changes to the box, I don't think anyone would quarrel with that merely because the changes were not to the app. meanwhile I think it's very important we keep this topic current and active - Sky Access should have the opportunity to respond if they are able to.
Update on Sky action
Positive news re Sky action
Hi. Just a quick update. I had a call from Sky's customer priority team last night. After a conference call purely to discuss my letter and involving Sky's Compliance Director, they are devising a plan to implement the reasonable adjustments I have requested or at least implement temporary work arounds. My most urgent request was to not charge blind customers who only pay for Sky Multiroom just to enable better use of the app to know what is recorded on the box. It's looking like this will be resolved over the next few weeks and no longer a question of if but when. This should happen in the next couple of weeks. My second was incorporating similar remote functionality to the app as was included in the Sky Plus app. I will be receiving a letter from Sky's legal team in the next fourteen days to provide interim resolutions for the other more complex issues such as making the box itself accessible. I was also advised Apple have contacted Sky in response to some feedback I provided them and Apple and Sky are working together to resolve these issues. It's nice to see apple being proactive in contacting developers directly to resolve issues. More updates to come soon but failure is not an option.
well this is positive, but
well this is positive, but are sky just dealing with your complaint specifically regarding sky q, or are they intending to make improvements for normal sky plus users? as we gave them loads of feedback on how normal sky plus could be improved, and although of course its great to see them making sky q accessible improvements to sky plus would be welcome, we shouldn't let them think that just improving one app is sufficient as they seem to clearly believe at the moment.
Some success
Hi all. Apologies for the slow updates but this is a lengthy process which is not yet over. I'm going to copy a letter I've received from Sky's legal team but needless to say, I have a lot of questions. Please do not all start calling Sky customer services to ask for a refund of sky multiroom charges as I'm trying to clarify if and how sky intend to make blind customers aware of this etc. Please be aware in my grievance I haven't just focused on Sky Q as I too have been there for all of the other issues relating to other Sky services including Sky+. See letter below and more to follow soon. This is now being escalated to CISAS who have 20 day to consider my grievance and their decision and any recommendations that come from it are legally binding and Sky have said they will abide by them. I do not have to accept the decision of CISAS and can progress this to court if I feel it's. Disappointingly only one person off here offered any kind of input or help but I'm guessing those affected will be wanting their refunds.
Dear Mr. Holdstock
Reply to formal complaint of alleged indirect discrimination and failure to make a reasonable adjustment
We refer to letter of 27th May 2018 and further to your recent discussions with our Customer Priority Department. While we have taken full note and careful consideration of your comments, we do not intend in this letter to reply directly to all of your allegations against Sky, and its alleged failure to comply with its legal obligations to you. We understand that your core concern is to be involved with Skyâs continued development of features and services (in particular relating to Sky Q) to improve the quality of service Sky offers to its blind and partially sighted customers.
While we deny any discrimination in the Sky Q services we make available to blind people or any breaches of relevant Ofcom requirements, we acknowledge that there are opportunities to make certain aspects of our services even better and we are committed to doing so. In particular, we are making certain functionality of the Sky Q Multiscreen subscription available without additional charge for our blind customers, so that they may properly navigate a list of their Sky+ recordings via the Sky Q app. In addition, we will be providing greater awareness to our customers of the Voice Search and Voice Control button on the Sky Q remote control. By pressing down this button (which is on the top right of the remote control) customers can ask to be taken to specific programmes and/or Sky+ recordings they have made. While this is not a complete solution to the text to speak issue you identify, it does provide a mechanism to play content on the main screen, while we develop a comprehensive and fully integrated approach to meeting this challenge.
In addition to the measures set out above, we would like to invite you (at our expense) to visit our offices to give you the opportunity to meet the product teams to discuss your experience with them and share your insight on high quality, customer-focused, high tech solutions for our visually impaired customers.
We would also like to offer you a full refund of amounts paid by you to date for your Sky Q Multiscreen subscription.
Yours sincerely,
Rafat Rasul
Paralegal, TMT & Litigation
Reply to Sky
Just my reply to Sky's last letter. Happy to hear your thoughts.
Dear Mr Rasul
Thank you for your letter dated 12 July which despite my prior request for it to be sent by email as I am blind and therefore unable to read a printed letter, I actually only received an email copy on 17 July and when speaking to your colleagues on the Priority Customer team only yesterday, a number of them confirmed that they had spoken to your team and as of yesterday the letter hadnât been sent. I clarify this only for the purposes of keeping a full timeline of events).
I will do my best to cover points made in your letter in order;
⢠âwe do not intend in this letter to reply directly to all of your allegations against Sky,â â will I receive a further reply re my other issues or is there good reason why you are not able to address these?
⢠âWe understand that your core concern is to be involved with Skyâs continued development of features and services (in particular relating to Sky Q) to improve the quality of service Sky offers to its blind and partially sighted customers.â â This was not my core concern at all and my enthusiasm to be able to assist with addressing accessibility issues on the Sky platform was purely to support Sky as a typical blind user of the system and for me not to seem like someone criticising without showing a willingness to aid the changes needed.
⢠âIn particular, we are making certain functionality of the Sky Q Multiscreen subscription available without additional charge for our blind customers, so that they may properly navigate a list of their Sky+ recordings via the Sky Q app.â â Genius idea, who came up with that? That would be my idea and for six months I asked for this and despite asking for it as a reasonable adjustment staff on both the Accessibility team and the Priority Customer team insisted that it would not be possible. Even when I attempted to make a complaint, an Accessibility team manager (Careon) replied on 8 May by email making it quite clear âthis is Skyâs position on the matterâ and giving me the impression that this position would not change. â This is the failure to make a reasonable adjustment. I acknowledge that it may not have been obvious for Sky to anticipate that such an adjustment would help, but once I requested this as an adjustment Sky cannot claim that it wasnât reasonable for them to know this.
⢠âIn addition, we will be providing greater awareness to our customers of the Voice Search and Voice Control button on the Sky Q remote control.â â I mentioned the issue of Voice Recognition and the problem of silent messages appearing on the screen which then stop Voice Recognition and other remote functions from working. I suggested a simple bleep to let the user know some kind of interaction is needed would be helpful. No mention of this and this could make Voice Recognition an unsuitable option for those completely blind and less technically minded.
⢠In regard to your invitation to come to your offices, meet the product teams etc, I would very much like to accept that offer and I look forward to hearing from someone to arrange this.
⢠In regard to a refund of my Sky Q Multiroom subscription, while I am grateful for this, I am disappointed that no offer of reasonable compensation for the significant stress, use of my time (literally tens of hours), the impact of offensive statements made by Sky employees directly relating to my request for a reasonable adjustment due to my disability such as âwell you chose to have Sky and other services are availableâ and âWhy would we give you Sky Multiroom for free when we wouldnât do it for anyone elseâ. The latter statement came from a manager on the Accessibility team which I feel makes it even worse. Indeed, to make matters worse there was no reference to these allegations in your reply. Did anyone actually listen to the phone calls as I suggested? Do they still exist or has the length of time passed meant that they have been deleted?
Also, how does Sky intend to make blind customers aware of this offer and will the offer be backdated as you have for me?
I appreciate there are several points you may want to come back to clarify and so Iâm open to still communicating and attempting to resolve this matter. However, in the meantime I will be escalating my case to CISAS as I feel they will be better placed to get to the bottom of some of my concerns and make an appropriate and independent judgement.
Given the lengthy nature of this process so far, I would kindly request a reply by email within seven days from my sending this email.
Kind regards
Peter
Hi Peter, that is good news
Hi Peter, that is good news from sky at least they are starting to take you seriously.
as regards your point about silent messages on screen interrupting remote function I have found this to be the case as well when low battery warnings come up on screen for the sky remote with sky plus.
As to only one person offering you help with your fight with sky, I suspect the reason for this is probably the vast majority of people on applevis are American citizens so this is probably of no interest to them. I myself would be happy to help if I can but I have no legal expertise and I am not the main bill payer in my house, but I would certainly be very happy to read draft letters, contribute thoughts and ideas, and suggest points to be raised with sky when you eventually meet them. Or if you were up for it and sky was I would even be happy to join you on the visit to sky to contribute thoughts and ideas.
Any progress with accessibility of the IOS Sky Q app?
Hi, just thought I'd bump this thread to see if any advancements had been made. Currently looking at several alternatives for TV such as Youview and Sky Q and interested to hear if one might be better than the other with the IOS apps.
Thanks
O
I two would be interested in
I two would be interested in an update, and if things have changed, as the original post in this topic was written about 3 years back. our house is again thinking about switching over to q, so thoughts on accessibility of q vs plus would be welcome. the original post states that you can't manage recordings from the planner, I am interested if this is still the case, and if there are other disadvantages I might suffer from moving to q, or conversely advantages. I know that I can't change channel within the app and so have to use the remote, but this isn't a big issue for me personally as I never watch anything live. I am not two keen on having all the house recordings managed centrally but that's one issue.
App now accessible
Hi. I'm pleased to say an update in December has made the app very accessible. There are aspects of the app which aren't very intuative and playback controls once video has started playing in the app aren't accessible. However, I and a few others have met with Sky and I'm pleased to say that this should be resolved very soon. For now, the app is very usable but remote control of the box is not available nor does it look like it will be in the future. I'm not able to go in to any details but after beginning the action I did against sky, I'm happy for now that the right steps are being taken to make the platform accessible and things are being put in place to enable them to take onboard and respond to disabled customers feedback much easier. I don't have time to explain the best way to use the app at the minute but if I get chance I'll post some helpful hints when I can. The main issue before was the menu which caused voice over a great dealof issues but now, once you get used to how it works it works well.
Hi Peter, when you say you
Hi Peter, when you say you can't go into details, did they get you to sign a non disclosure agreement or something?
is it going to be made possible to play programs back directly on the tv? as I understand it at the moment you can only watch programs back directly on an ios device, whereas sighted users can actually select to play programs directly through the tv if using the box.
As I understand it currently if I want to get audio through my tv of a program I will have to airplay it which sounds fiddly.
I would like your view though given that I am on plus currently is q over all a step forward or backward in terms of accessibility or is it simply going sideways?
I guess I am trying to work out if I should really try to persuade my dad to stick with plus given that we have no immediate need to upgrade, though he thinks he will save money if he does.
also, is managing recordings through the app now accessible, I mean can I delete things if I want to, as the original post on this topic says that this can't be done, bulk delete would certainly be nice but I doubt that will happen.
Is Multiroom Still needed?
Hi, Somewhere back in this thread I read something about needing multi room, or Q experience, or whatever Sky are calling it to receive certain functionality. Is this still the case? I ask as, if I have to get multi room anyway, I might go for the 2TB for the slightly increased setup fee as it includes Dolby Atmos whereas the 1TB does not. There was also mention that multi room would be free for blind users of the service? Is this still the case?
Sorry to dump all these questions on you all... I'm an utter skin flint and want to be certain I'm getting the best possible version without paying for nonsense that I don't really need. :)
Cheers
@OliverKennett
Multi room viewing for the visually impaired
Hello. As far as I know multiview thing is still annoying for the visually impaired. I had an issue with sky about 12 months ago as they failed to tell me that I required two boxes to use my app I eat the Sky Q app. On the last circumstance I got it for one euro for the next 12 months. As I say sky failed to inform me that I required it and I was cancelling my second box. As I did not need to use it. So they made me a deal and I got it for one euro for the next 12 months but no on the 23rd of this January. My 12 months is up and I have recently rung them up. And I rang the accessibility in sky and they said nothing about me getting the second box for free. But I cannot negotiate until the 23rd of this month when my contract finishes. So hopefully I will be asking for the second box free as a vision impaired sky customer but as I say they have not told me that I cannot use it. And yes you do need to have the two boxes the multiview to use the Sky Q app i.e. to see what you have recorded and stuff like that. You can still record stuff but you cannot go into the app on your phone and see what you have recorded or anything like that because if you cancel your second box the app becomes redundant and the app at the moment is quite accessible
Just spoke to them, no dice...
I just spoke with sky regarding this issue of only. being able to tell what has been downloaded if you have the multiscreen. The accessibility department, though understanding, had no knowledge of discounts for visually impaired people for the sake of making the experience more workable. I'm unsure what to do. ÂŁ12 a month merely to know what I've recorded is a lot of money and without it, I imagine the use of the whole system is going to be frustrating. I only want it on one screen anyway! I'm not even getting a free mini box.
Getting the IOS app to fully function requires this subscription, which I feel is a little off.
(Included reference to the IOS app just so we don't get told it is off topic again ;)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
@OliverKennett
if you only want it on one
if you only want it on one screen why not just stick with sky plus? personally I think q seems to have disadvantages compared to plus, for example not being able to play back directly to my tv but having to airplay audio from my phone to the box which will then send it to the tv.
I think given the choice I would stick with the old plus system.
though of course sky don't really seem to be supporting the plus app at all these days in terms of updates, features etc.
Not an option for a new customer
Correct me if I"m wrong, but the Sky+ is for app is for the Sky HD box? If so, that is no longer supported. All new customers only have the choice between the 1 and 2 TB sky q boxes. :(
your correct in that sky q
your correct in that sky q and plus use separate apps, but it was said earlier in this thread that sky still offered plus boxes and recommended them for blind customers and that in fact they still manufactured plus boxes.
Of course I have no idea if this is still the case.
Unfortunately...
I believe that comment was made a while back and it would seem that sky has indeed stopped providing SKY HD boxes. I am hoping that the Q App along with the voice search on the remote will be useful, but yeah... Much of the time it is better to go for the legacy equipment that has had most of its bugs shaken out.
Sky Q app
Unfortunately. As I said in my own problem. My contract is up at the end of January. I therefore have to purchase the next 12 months for âŹ16 I have to purchase the multi viewing package. As I do not need or require a second box. It has not been turned on for the last eight months in the kitchen. But I have to have it due to if I do not have a second multi viewing box I cannot use the Sky Q app to see what I have recorded last week. As I would not remember what I have recorded to even go ask the sky Q Remelle control voice option to say play a certain sure as I say I wouldâve forgotten what I have recorded last week or even last month. With the sky Q I can go in and out and at least see what I have recorded i.e. movies or TV series is and then go and ask at the sky remote to play them. But this is a very big inconvenience on my behalf and unfortunately I would have to purchase the box for the next 12 months at âŹ16 a month which is a lot of bloody money for a waste of bloody time.
New customers on Sky+
Hi Oliver and all. Just to clarify, while Sky Q is the default for new customers, you can still opt instead for Sky+ for accessibility reasons if you wish.
To do this however, you need to speak to our Accessibility team, as our general Sales teams do not have access to this option. If you have already placed an order with the Sales team for Sky Q, you can still call Accessibility and have it switched to Sky+.
It's a personal judgement call honestly. Both iOS apps are accessible, but the Sky+ app allows you to manage your Planner and play from the app to the TV. Sky Q though is the more modern platform, with more scope for future enhancements.
Re Michael
Hi @Michael. I will look into this.
nice to see sky is still
nice to see sky is still keeping an eye on applevis, I get that q is more modern, but why doesn't the app support directly starting to play programs back directly from the box to the tv, to my mind only being able to play back on an ios device is a big step backward especially when sighted customers can play things directly back from the tv.
I also haven't been able to establish is managing recordings through the q app possible or not? I mean deleting things etc.
it also does seem unfair that owners of single q boxes are being forced to take out multi room just to use the app, this wouldn't apply to me, but it does seem a real shortcoming of the system.
I would still be in favor of legislation to force sky and other companies to actually take accessibility seriously and not just an optional extra that they will work on when they feel like it.
Outdated hardware
Hi, I worry that I'd be losing out on the more future proof hardware. I think it's good that this is offered, however I am going to cross my fingers and go for the Sky Q box in the hope that it will evolve, though I will also continue to ask for a reduction in the multi screen as, for the stated reasons, we shouldn't have to pay extra for the equivalent access to the same system. Would you be kind enough to pass this on?
Ironically, I've not even tried the Sky Q app yet as need a sky Q box to make it work, even a little.
Re Alex
Hi @Alex. Indeed, the Sky Q app was designed with a different use case in mind. But we are very much aware of the impact this had on visually impaired customers, and exploring long term options.
No, if you have the MultiScreen subscription, you can view what's in the Planner, called Recordings in Sky Q, and download and watch them, but you cannot delete them from the box.
Re Oliver Kennett
Hi @Oliver. Glad you're looking at joining us. My recommendation is to go straight to our Accessibility team to place your order if possible, so you can discuss your options.
If you would like to get an idea of how the Sky Q app works, you can download the Sky Go app, which is almost identical in design to the sky Q app. Of course you will not be able to watch anything, but you can explore the app.
Hi thanks for clarifying that
Hi thanks for clarifying that, so how is someone who is blind supposed to manage there own recordings?
please don't tell me at the moment they will have to ask someone sighted to do it for them?
if so I am utterly amazed and will be doing my best to make sure we stay on the plus system. Managing recordings through the remote is all very well but if you have months to scroll back through this doesn't seem practical, and in my case because it would potentially be a two box household I would be at real risk of accidentally deleting recordings made by other members of the household because of course all recordings are stored centrally, and the point of q is correct me if I am wrong but I could decide to watch anybodies recordings in the house because of them all being stored in one place. this of course also has the consequence that I couldn't even memorize the order of recordings because knowing my luck other people would add extra things to the list.
Managing Recordings
Hi @Alex. The approach some users are taking is to use the app as a guide to tell them what is in the Recordings section, and the order they appear in, and then learn the button sequence on the remote.
If you do delete somebody's recording by mistake, they can recover them from the deleted items section.
For playback, you do also have the option of voice control, a feature which is being enhanced over time.
As stated earlier, we are aware that this is far from an optimal experience, but it is the partial workaround which some customers are employing. Others have opted to remain on Sky+ and the Sky+ app for the time being.
Thank you
If you can look into this it would be very good. I thought previously in a long before comment. That somebody had this issue and sky had said that anybody would a visually impaired meant. Was in titled to get the second sky Q box free. Would a free subscription I also contacted sky accessibility. Last week and they knew nothing about this. As my contact sorry contract will be up on the 23rd of January. Whereupon. I will be forced to subscribe for another 12 months of pain âŹ16 for a box which lies idle in it once kitchen. So I can have access like every other person can to their own box and be independent so I can use the app and not called upon sighted people to record our delete programs for me
Michael did you see above?
Michael did you see above? you can't delete recordings using the app, the second box only grants the privilege of you being able to look at your recordings so you will have to try to fight with the remote to delete anything. and of course if you accidentally delete a recording I don't think you have the option to recover it through the app, at least plus doesn't have this feature so I assume q doesn't as well.
Forgot about deleting
Yup I hundred percent forgot about deleting as Iâve always said about the new âsky Q app. They went 100% backwards from the old sky plus app. The only way I can go in and watch a show to the app on the sky Q is I would go open the app. Go into recent. If I was looking for my recent Coronation Street episode. I would have to count over as it goes in a grid of three. So I will count over three. And then go down County getting go down count again so if my Coronation Street was the 12th icon. In the sky Q app. I would then proceed to press record app button on the remote control which opens up the settings in the sky Q Record page on the TV. I would then press over and hopefully Condover tree down and go to the 12th icon which hopefully is the Coronation Street icon press okay and then play Carnation Street. More than likely I have always gotten it wrong and it was either left or right of this. So as I say it is a Dickensian old unfortunately embarrassing way that I have to do it but it is the only option I have to be independent from everyone else and do it on my own. So no I have the privilege of King an extra âŹ16 a month to have this in Barrison degree heading way of doing this on my own to be independent so cheers for telling me and remind me I cannot delete from the sky Q hopefully sky will rectify these big mirrors sorry errors
Sky+ Package and the option to upgrade when the app is useful
Hi,
@SkyAccessability
So after playing with my folks Sky+ HD box and the IOS app, I found that it was pretty good actually. Is there a means of turning Audio description on through the Sky+ app for recorded items? Or, if not, for live ones?
My main question is, considering that Sky Q is obviously woefully inadequate when it comes to accessibility making it necessary for blind people to pay extra for the privilege of, well, being blind and being unable to use the service properly... If I, as a new customer, were to go for the Sky+ package and therefore the Sky+ app which is the accessible solution, would I get a discount from the current packages and would it be free to upgrade to the Sky Q package once the functionality of the box is accessible via the app or otherwise?
Seems a bit rough if I'd first have to have the older equipment and then pay the premium price for upgrade at some point in the future merely because of the failings of Sky, IE, I don't want to pay for something that is Sky's responsibility and ultimately, fault.
Cheers
O
Just wondering if people have
Just wondering if people have considered now tv as an alternative to sky q? I have to say I really don't like the thought of switching to q, so have begun to investigate now tv, but it seems very hard to get up to date information as regards its accessibility or lack of. I am currently looking into boxes and other methods of receiving. any thoughts about now tv would certainly be welcome.
The app is dreadful on Ios
The app is dreadful on Ios with many of the buttons unlabeled. Not that it really matters for us but it's not 4 k yet even though the latest box supports it for other services such as netflix and youtube. Finally there is no audio description.
Hi oliver thanks for your
Hi oliver thanks for your thoughts, the button labeling is certainly one thing to put me off, are you sure though that now tv doesn't offer audio description as when I have googled trying to find up to date information which is very difficult I came across several posts on there forums from people complaining about audio description being activated and not sure how to turn it off.
If we were going to get it at all I think we would be receiving it through boxes, but obviously that doesn't matter if the apps accessibility is bad. grr looks like I am really stuck then as I really don't want to go to q but dad is thinking about it simply because he says he doesn't need a lot of what he pays for at the moment from sky and they are not very flexible in the packages they offer.
He is also considering virgin but I have heard bad things about there accessibility as well.
planner navigation
I'm really pleased that this discussion has been revitalised with a lot of comment in the last few days. it's very important and the best way to get some progress is to make sure Sky know that a significant number of us still feel strongly about this issue.
@SkyAccess I've always tried to be fair in my commentary on this issue, so thanks for Sky's engagement with the discussion and for what appear to be significant improvements with the app. i have to add my voice to those who are disappointed, however, that we have to resort to work-arounds such as guessing how many times to press a button on a remote so as to be able to delete recordings from the planner. I pay a lot of money to sky, and while i don't expect everything to be perfect, nor does it seem right that we should have to resort to work-arounds of this sort to perform a pretty basic function. I hope it is being treated as high priority to fix this because I also agree with those who are saying that having to settle for legacy equipment because the new kit isn't quite up to scratch yet is unsatisfactory.
Hi bingo, not only that but
Hi bingo, not only that but remember if your blind and using the app we can't play a program back directly to the tv, we have to watch on a device, then air play the audio to our tv, which is fine say if we are on our own, but what if we want to watch tv with someone sighted? frankly we shouldn't have to ask them to set a program playing directly on the tv, as obviously airplay can only send the audio to the tv, not to mention of course it will cause phones and other devices to run out of battery quicker.
Re Now TV
I believe the issues with Audio Description and it turning on are only with recorded programs through the sky+ HD box. My understanding is that there is no AD on now TV, and I can't imagine that has changed, but I'd love to be wrong. With the Sky Q box, however, it is possible to record any AD program and choose to have it on or off during the playback. With the Sky+HD box it is recorded as is.
I'm going to have to go for the Sky HD box I think and hope that I'm not charged an arm and a leg when they finally make the Sky Q system half way pleasant to use.
O
Responses
Hi all, some further responses.
@Oliver - The Sky+ app does not have the ability to toggle audio description on and off, it needs to be done on the box, though is relatively easy, just a couple of button presses. This suggestion has been registered, though the app is currently being maintained rather than being actively developed.
On Sky+, a recorded programme will have AD if AD was switched on when the recording was made, and it cannot be toggled on or off in the recording. On Sky Q, it can be toggled in the recording.
There is currently no policy in place to provide discounts for Sky Q upgrades. If this changes I will let you know.
@Alex - Now TV on iOS is currently not very accessible with VoiceOver I'm afraid, though we have been engaging well with the product teams in recent months, so I am positive about it in the longer term.
On Apple TV however, it is accessible.
Audio description is currently not supported on Now TV, as is the case with On Demand content on Sky, and content on the Sky Go app. It is our ambition to develop this feature, and when it comes to Sky On Demand and Sky Go, it should also come to Now TV. I am not though in a position to guarantee if or when this will happen.
We have a huge range of AD on our broadcast Sky TV channels, and the Sky+ and Sky Q boxes also support AD when provided by other broadcasters.
@Bingo - Thanks for the comment. Yes, absolutely, the impact of this is not lost on us.
@Peter - Thanks for your earlier comment. I'm glad you found your visit useful, and I know we did too. Sorry I am based at a different site so wasn't able to meet you myself.