1164. Accessibiity: Fire Stick and Smart TV and OTA Antenna

I am in the midst of installing Accessibility enhancements for my client's TV to allow him to utilize it given his visual impairment. I know I may not have the best solution, but it works so far.

He said spending up to $250+/month for TV was a waste. He only wanted to get to You Tube videos. Well, that changed last week to now adding NFL games. His TV service was already gone, so here's what we have so far and what we are working on.

First, we installed a Fire Stick (under $30) in the HDMI port 2 (HDMI 1 was his Smart Sony TV and TV service which is now gone). The Fire Stick remote with VOICE ACTIVATION of everything resolves mountains of issues he had. Setting up VoiceView option under Fire Stick reads the essential parts of the screen for him which were impossible to read giving his impairment. Someday, I'll document the entire process we went through, but this post will be limited to the current issue facing us.

Which is: Giving him his NFL, Cowboys of course here in TX, football games on Local Channels. So, the challenge is to make Local Channels available to him. There are a number of solutions, e.g., AirTV Mini, Amazon Cube, Free Sling App, etc. But the one we are going to try requires only the purchase of an indoor HD Antenna that is required in ANY solution. Out attempt does not require anything by the antenna attached to the Sony Smart TV, whereas, the other solutions require purchase of one of the network-attached local channel converters and an APP on the Fire Stick.

Our solution requires SWITCHING from the default Fire Stick INPUT to the Smart TV to watch the games and then SWITCH back to Fire Stick mode. Commanding the change to and back is ASY with the Fire Stick Remote. Just say "Switch to HDMI1" to get to Smart TV (IF you are on a cable/satellite service attached to HDMI1) or "Switch to HDMI2" to get back our Fire Stick system. Well, we cut the cord completely and HDMI is now vacant. So, we could say "Switch input" and up will come selection of apps on the Smart TV. Now, how do we select one of the apps that he cannot see from the Smart TV Remote which is also too small to use. He also has very unsteady hands and fingers, so even if bigger would probably not help. 

First step is to get the Local Channels loaded via an Antenna purchase (under $30). Second, use the Smart TV Remote to test it out. Shouldn’t be a problem. Should work just like the OTA antenna I have on my TV. But, the problem for his setup is to Switch directly to the Channel Guide or a TV station instead of a selection of APPS. So, Third, we exclude all APPS except for "Channels" (I'm hoping that's where the Locals will arrive when the TV scans for them. Fourth, is a try it out implementation where a subcomponent of the TV INPUT is defined via Equipment and Mange Inputs sets up an Input to go directly to CHANNELS by that name. Thus, we hope "Switch to Channels" will get directly to what we want. FIFTH, assuming that works, we test out the channels and getting around with the Smart TV Remote. What I am hoping for is that ONLY the Channel UP/Down, Volume Up/Down, power, and MUTE buttons are require so we can get a Visually Impaired Universal Remove with only those buttons on it to manage the TV. Of course, we still have the visual problem reading a TV Guide, but that can be delivered via the Internet in 18 pt text for him. The Universal will require setting them up with JUST the FAVORITE 5 network stations. No problem with the Sony setup where Favorites can be selected to ignore the other 40 or so channels that we expect to be found. Cycling through 4-5 channels will not be a problem.

There you have it. We begin the implementation of the plan this Saturday. 

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DONE and SUCCESSFUL! Walmart delivered the 

Camkey HDTV Antenna Indoor, Digital TV Antenna with Amplifier Signal Booster Up to 120 Miles, Support 4K 1080P HD VHF UHF for Local Channels  

in less than 2 days! This was a requirement no matter the option for viewing channels on SONY Smart TV. Here's the process:

1. First, we were installing the Antenna onto a Smart TV, but without any TV service. So, $0 for our self-service.

2. Unpack the very small boxed antenna, like 5".

3. Screw the Antenna stick to the Antenna base...no parts needed

4. Plug the USB plug into TV USB port to use the TV power OR attach the Receptacle plug onto the Antenna USB Plug and plug it into the wall receptacle.

5. Now, screw the coax Antenna Cable onto the TV’s ANT IN port.

6. On the Smart TV Remote find in it’s Settings the Channel Setup function and begin the SCAN for local channels (23 digital channels were found) … success

7. We wanted ONLY ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC, and CBS, so, we omitted all the others from the FAVOITES leaving only the desired stations selected. Cycling through 5 channels with the Channel UP/DOWN was a wonderful implementation. But later we improved on that too.

8. Locate the multi-directional Antenna somewhere where nothing interferes with the reception. We first had it on a table and it was perfect until the cleaning lady walked between the Antenna and the local broadcast station. Next, we moved it looped over the drape rod. This was fine except for PBS that is located further from the other stations and the drape itself interfered with PBS. Lastly, we set on the top of the bottom window and taped the cord onto the frame so it wouldn’t fall off accidentally. PERFECT. TV channels showed solidly CLEAR! It all works using the TV Remote. Now we moved on to switching between the Smart TV and the Fire Stick,

9. The primary use of the TV is to watch You Tube on Fire Stick, although he may find other desires later. Thus, the default power on is to Fire Stick, our HDMI1 connection to the TV. When he wants to switch inputs to the TV, he holds the Firestick Mic down and says “SWITCH INPUT”. Note, usually one would say SWITCH HDMI2, but we have no cable/satellite service connecting to HDMI2. I can’t find a way to get there via a HDMI port and would love to be able to tell it to go to the ANTENNA. If you know how to set this up on a SINY, please leave a comment.

10. “SWITCH INPUT” gets you to the TV, but a banner comes up that makes you select CHANNELS to continue. On the TV remote we stuck a GREEN dot over the enter key (button surrounded by a circle of UP/RIGHT/DOWN/LEFT options). NOGO using his finger! His hands are unsteady and it kept hitting one of the surrounding options too. Solution? USE YOUR THUMB. Bingo. He can now execute the function to continue onto the TV channels 100% of the time.

11. I then up orange dot stickers on the channel UP and DOWN and Red dot stickers on Volume up and Down…Success. He can cycle through his 5 channels. I have a red square sticker on his MENU button which he’ll never use because he can’t see it YET! Until I explore the Accessibility features of the TV. Hopefully a magnifier or text-to-speech will be there to assist him

12. After watch TV, he needs to get back to the Fire Stick video input. Put the TV Remote down, you are finished watching Local Stations on your TV! Pickup the Firestick Remote, hold the MIC button, say “SWITCH FIRE STICK” or “SWITCH HDMI1” and up pops the Fire Stick screen.

 I considered an easier TV remote, but I’m not sure how he would execute the CHANNELS button displayed on the banner (See 10 above). The Visually Impaired TV Remotes all appear to have only Power, Mute, Channel UP/DOWN, Volume UP/DOWN. I saw one with INPUT, but that won’t work as it unless it can be programmed to be an ENTER button. I could continue to look, but NOT necessary since the original SONY Remote with the COLOR enhancements over the buttons works just fine. Oh, A YELLOW Dot Sticker is on the TV MIC.

 Conclusion, for the price of the Antenna (less than $30 shipped to the door from Walmart), and a few color stickers that he’ll have forever, and the effort above to implement the process, we are good to go! Onto the next Accessibility project. Any questions? Submit a cmoment.