How can we make a difference?

[StaceD]

Hi, sorry to hear that you are finding the transition challenging. Haave you tried making the display high contrast. You can do that by:

1. Pressing Home on your Sky Q remote and select Settings.
2. Select Accessibility, then High contrast and change the setting from Off to On.
3. Press Dismiss to return to live TV.

That may help in terms of seeing the writing on the screen. You can alse get an accessible remote which has raised contour buttons and more tactile points, higher visibility and larger/bolder graphics. You can contact us on to order.  

I hope that helps

[mgmidget66]

I originally posted this in the 'Accounts' section but I think it may be more suited to here. Sorry for the long post

tl;dr - I have a stammer, the voice recognition when I ring Sky doesn't understand me, is there a direct number I can use?

I'm not sure anyone can help with this but I am at my whits end and slowly losing the will to live when I ring up Sky.

I have a bad stammer which gets worse on the phone due to my worry about people on the other end not understanding me. To be honest this has never really caused me any problems, in my 49 years of speaking I've developed ways to mange this and can usually get by. Plus people in general are quite nice and understanding. Also all hail Apple - Siri always understands me prefectly 🙂

But when I try to ring Sky.... It's impossible. The voice recognition just can't understand me. It thinks I've stopped speaking when I haven't. I find words that begin with 'B' difficult to say so constantly hearing 'Sorry I don't understand you' when I try to say 'billing' is quite humiliating as it usually says that when I finally manage to get the word out. It's cut me off numerous times and I just end up shouting at my phone as that seems to make it understand me but looks odd in the office. Basically, the whole way of dealing with Sky this way feels quite humilating and tiring. I renegotiated my contract with them recenly but I was so stressed trying to make the system understand me that by the time I *finally* got to speak to someine after numerous times of yelling at my phone I wasa broken man and didn't get a good deal, imho.

So, my questions is, can I bypass this system? Is there a number for people who have speech difficulties so we can bypass the system? I'm sure Sky wants to be an accessible company so is there a line for people with disabilities? I've never in my nearly 50 years on earth ever thought of myself as a disabled person but my inability due to a personal limitation of being able to access Sky is making me think maybe I am.

This is no reflection on any Sky employee - when I do manage to get through to someone they are always polite and helpful but the automated system most definately isn't - it's nearly reduced me to tears on numerous occasions.

Thanks to anyone who's managed to get this far, hopefully there is a solution (and if they can fix that then hopefully they can fix the constant disconnection of Sky Q and my the minibox I have...)

[Daniel0210]

@mgmidget66 

It could be beneficial being registered with the Sky Accessibility Team who may be able to help now or in the future. Once registered there are also different methods of communication with this team other than phoning
https://www.skyaccessibility.sky/

This link may also provide further advice
https://www.sky.com/help/articles/third-party-assistance

edit- your duplicate posts have been removed to prevent duplication of advice. 

[mgmidget66]

@Daniel0210 I shouldn't need to get someone else to speak for me, I don't need 3rd part assistance. Although well meaning that feels like a bit of an insult to be honest (though I realise you are only trying to help).

As for Sky assistance, well, I don't have problems with vision, hearing or physical skills and I'm not sure cognative disabilility applies to me either. So I'm not sure what catagory I count in, though feel free to suggest I pot I fit in that get me a direct number so I can ring up and complain about my broadband. Again.

[Daniel0210]

@mgmidget66 

Feel free to disregard the third party help link. It does benefit some customers. There is no direct number for a specific issue. You can call Sky free by dialling 150 from a Sky Talk landline or a Sky Mobile, alternatively you can use:
https://www.sky.com/help/home
UK customers: Scroll down and click on ‘Need more help’ and it provides a 0333 number.
ROI customers: change the flag in the bottom right corner of the link to the ROI flag then scroll down and click on ‘Need more help’ and it provides a 0818 number.
(The forum doesn’t allow us to type the numbers in full).

You will find that similar to calling other large companies the start will be automated which may also try to send you here to the forum. Stay on the line as long as possible and don’t hang up. If necessary say nothing when the automated system asks you what your call is about as it should then route your call into a queue for the next available agent.

[mgmidget66]

@Daniel0210 yes, tried all that, but you do sometimes just get cut off. Honestly, people shouldn't have to do this. I wrote quite a long post about this in the Sky Accessibility section of the forum just now but it seems to have dissapeared - why would it get removed?

[Daniel0210]

@mgmidget66 

Your two other posts asking the same have been removed as duplicates to prevent duplication of replies. Your working post is on this thread in the Sky Accessibility board. 

[mgmidget66]

@Daniel0210 ok, but I don't want this issue to get lost - for me, and I imigine anyone with a speech problem, stong acent, etc this will be a problem. There must be a better answer than simply 'ring up and say nothing', surely?

[Daniel0210]

@mgmidget66 

Have you a particular issue with using a non phone call method of communicating with Sky offered by the Accessibility Team? You said yourself in your opening post that you originally posted on the Sky Q board but felt this board was more appropriate. 

[mgmidget66]

@Daniel0210 I guess the question is do I qualify? Is there someone on the accesibility team I can speak to?

[Daniel0210]

@mgmidget66 

You need to register as per the link. If you don't qualify I'm sure they'll advise you. Tbh I think you will. 

[Kelsingra]

Hey @mgmidget66 

Welcome to the Community Forum!

I just wanted to confirm what @Daniel0210 advised earlier. At Sky we have a wonderful Accessibility Team, who has other contact methods than just calling. 

You can read more about them here:
https://www.skyaccessibility.sky/

Here are some options how to get in touch with the Team:

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/contacting-sky-accessibility

I hope you find an option that will be suitable for you and thank you again for joining our Community Forum! 🙂

[Vic.A]

It's now 2024 and Sky have still not addressed the subtitles issue in terms of being able to adjust them in terms of size, colour & font. 

There have been SO many people posting about this yet Sky haven't done anything about it. 

I'm watching The Day Of The Jackal ant the moment and whenever someone speaks in a non-English language, so lovely Whitt subtitles come up, with a clear background, they're unobtrusive and you can read them perfectly fine. But for English, Sky still have the huge ceefax style, ugly subtitles, they're properly in your face! My issue is with the sound, not my sight, where my retinas are burned with the day glow green lettering on a black background. It's like someone at Sky has an '80s Dymo machine...

I can do BOLD here.

I can do Italics here.

I can do BOLD Italics here.

So why not on my super advanced Sky Q box?

Come on Sky, you're should be better than this...

[Rach271]

Has this ever been looked into - it is worse than ever before one simply button please and clear the Home Screen it's shockingly poor for customers with disabilities like dementia as an example

[JFGustavsson]

I agree. The subtitles takes up too much screen space for me but I can't do without them. Very annoying.

please add this feature pronto.