HBO Max Accessibility Issues

By Kyle1998, 23 June, 2020

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I am new to this forum, and I had a question about the accessibility of HBO Max. I have been having trouble with the accessibility on the app. My voiceover is having trouble reading the screen. It is not letting me move around the screen, and explore the content. I am wondering if anyone else is having this same problem, or if it just my phone. I have tried updating the app and my phone as well, but it still does not want to work. If anyone has any suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated. I actually called HBO three weeks ago, and they said that they would get back to me, but they still have yet to do so.

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Comments

By Orlando on Sunday, July 5, 2020 - 23:56

The HBO Max app on iOS and iPad is not accessible with screen readers.
One work around that I have found to work to get content from HBO Max to play on your iOS device is. Period. One. Open the Apple TV app on your iOS device
Two. And the Apple TV app search for what you would like to watch on HBO max.
Three. If you are signed in to HBO Max on your iOS device the Apple TV app should find the content you’re looking for and take you directly to it to launch it.

If you happen to have an Apple TV streaming box, the HBO Max app is accessible on bear. I am able to browse and find content with the screen reader on the Apple TV version.
HBO is not very consumer friendly when it comes to issues of accessibility. That being said I try to submit an email to the consumer affairs website at least once a month to keep the pressure up on them to get this added to their services. Also there is no audio described contrast on the service at all and I cannot find any closed caption settings on the app either. I hope this helps

Thank you so much. You’ve been very helpful. I plan on getting in Apple TV box very soon. hopefully they will eventually become more accessible. I’m not holding my breath though.

By Usman on Thursday, August 5, 2021 - 23:56

Hello,
so to update this, the app is far more accessible now with plenty of described audio. But I noticed that the layout is quite odd to say the least. For instance, when you double tap into a title, voiceover focus lands on the back button which happens to be after the rest of the content in that window, such as, play, add to list, download, and the list of episodes. One has to scroll all the way to the top of the window to find the play button.
The other thing I noticed is that there seems to be major issues with focus. Many times, I'm having to double tap on the play but nothing happens. I find that it works more reliably when you go into episode one itself then scroll to the top, or place a finger on the screen where the play button is to activate it.
So, much improved but still has a long way to go.