topic Re: Availability Of Audio Description in Sky Accessibility

Availability Of Audio Description

Steve+H-D — Sun, 16 May 2021 21:48:43 GMT

Hi All, this is my first posting to the forum. I've been a Sky Customer now for over 15 years and have been somewhat disappointed at the level of accessibility we have had as someone with total blindness. Sky Talker was merely a token gesture to accessibility though it did certainly help in terms of channel names and programme names. The TVonics player though pretty much nailed everything in terms of accessibility for myself. That is though, until now! Voice Guidance has really revolutionised the way we watch television. Hands up to Sky though for pulling this one out of the bag! The purpose though of my email is that I find the way AD works with Sky. I find it so so frustrating when I try to watch a programme on 'on demmand' or 'catch up' and find no AD at all even when it is a programme that I know well had AD when it was originally aired. It a bit like giving someone a ferrari and then taking off the wheels! I understand that there is some very slow work being done on putting AD on their add on services but, I've seen absolutely no evidence of this. As great as the Sky service is, we do pay a lot of money for this so please please Sky, come on...

Re: Availability Of Audio Description

DaveAccess — Mon, 17 May 2021 16:18:59 GMT

Hi @Steve+H-D Thanks for the message.

Firstly, I'm delighted to hear that Voice Guidance is working well for you. It's certainly a huge step forward andd something we aim to build on, so if you have any thoughts or requests, please let us know.

On audio description, I do understand where you're coming from. The reality is that it is unfortunately not a simple matter of taking the version that was broadcast and putting into the on demand library, there are different background systems at play. Our back-end systems are currently undergoing a technical upgrade, and as part of that work, AD will become available for on demand content.

We will keep you posted here when we have more information.

Thanks,

Dave

Re: Availability Of Audio Description

Steve+H-D — Mon, 17 May 2021 16:45:36 GMT

Hi Dave, that is good to know. There are a number of box sets I'd love to watch and know AD was available when aired. Have you any idea as to how long it might be before we can expect to see some AD along with the on demand or catch up content? Many thanks.

Re: Availability Of Audio Description

DaveAccess — Tue, 18 May 2021 13:25:39 GMT

Hi Steve. We don't have a timeframe to announce right now, but it is an active piece of work. Will post when we know more.