[access-uk] Re: letter to sky re access issues
- From: "Peter Holdstock" <peterholdstock@xxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:42:22 -0000
Because they could use a different number for blind customers to text. As your
mobile number is linked up to your viewing card I'm sure the system could make
sure they are blind customers. All costs money to bring in though so it won't
happen.
Peteran
From: william lomas
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 9:25 AM
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: letter to sky re access issues
but the problem is, how will they know who is "genuinly" blind?
On 10 Jan 2010, at 09:12, Peter Holdstock wrote:
Ofcourse the other thing which would help would be if they didn't charge us
blind users the 25p to set it to record using sms. Then we could just text our
boxes and it wouldn't be an issue so much.
Good letter although I and many others have done this before. I might write
another one though.
Peter
From: martin wilsher
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 7:59 PM
To: martin wilsher
Subject: [access-uk] letter to sky re access issues
hi all, here is a letter i wrote to sky about access to their accessible tv
listings and other issues. happy reading.
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Dear sir/Madam:
My name is Martin wilsher, and I have been a user of sky plus for some time.
I am a sky customer who uses the accessibility listings from the sky.com
website as I am blind, and therefore cannot use the regular TV listings.
In this letter I would like to address a few issues I have with the sky.com
website and the way a blind user of the accessibility services can search for,
and remote record the programmes offered on the sky platform.
I live in the eastern region, so cannot easily get BBC1 London, which is the
channel where all audio described programmes are broadcast from. I understand
these are in the 900 region of the sky EPG for subscribers not in the London
region, but to access this is not easy from the following link.
http://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/tvguide/tvlistingsalternate
The reason for this is that, even though I can find the entertainment genre
and even select a day, to get to the 900 region of the EPG, I need to scroll
forward through many pages to get there. On each of the pages accessed from
http://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/tvguide/tvlistingsalternate
There are a plus ten channels and a previous ten channels, denoted by a plus
sign and a minus sign on each page. I should be able, if I go to:
http://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/tvguide/tvlistingsalternate
then select entertainment, or any other genre, and then choose my preferred
day, and then choose to view for that genre and date, be able to scroll back to
the end of the genre by pressing the minus sign on the first page I come to.
At the moment this does not work, even though the minus sign is there,
returning me to the first page I am on.
For example, if I select entertainment, then a day, I will view channels
starting from 101. On that page there is a minus sign, if I press enter on
that link, I find I am still at the page with 101 and not at the end of the
entertainment genre in the 990s where I want to be if I want to record audio
described content from the BBC. I wonder if you could change this for all
channels to make searching the end of a genre listing as easy for a blind user
using the accessible screen reader listings, as it is for a user with sight,
who can type in a number on the normal TV listings and go immediately to their
chosen channel. I feel this fix could be implemented easily, as the link is
there, but goes nowhere at the moment.
Another issue is the way the accessible TV listings listing audio described
and other accessible programming interacts with the screen reader friendly TV
listings.
Going to the sky.com accessibility site, I can search for audio described
programmes, but when I come to remote record them, I am taken to the page:
http://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/tvguide/tvlistingsalternate
Where I need to find the programme all over again, having just searched for
it once from the sky accessibility site.
This is tedious and unnecessary, as all the programme info pages, leading off
the main channel info pages, have their own url, so the sky.com accessibility
search could interface with that programme’s proper synopsis page, rather than
just with the main access site at,
http://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/tvguide/tvlistingsalternate forcing a
blind user to find a programme twice.
A third issue is the lack of a series link option on the screen reader access
TV listings. I cannot, for instance, tell my sky plus box to series link a
programme, from the website, whereas a sighted user, using the box and the
printed EPG on the screen, can do this quite easily. I feel this lack of
access is discriminatory, as at the moment we have no access to the box what so
ever, as there is no talking EPG or menu system on the sky plus boxes. I would
like a series link button put on the website, so blind people can use series
link.
I would also recommend the following until a talking EPG can be implemented.
That blind users of your services get more recording requests from the sky.com
site, than the current ten allowed at present. This would go some way to
compensating for the lack of access to the sky box. At the moment, once the
ten recording requests have been used in a given day, a blind user is forced to
use an expensive text messaging service to programme their boxes, and this
clearly leaves blind users at a disadvantage to sighted users, and could also
be seen as giving a lesser service to blind customers than that which is given
to sighted customers.
I hope my suggestions find favour with yourselves, and can be implemented
quickly, as they would make searching the TV listings on the sky.com website as
easy and more equal for a blind user as it is currently for a sighted user.
Yours Faithfully
M G Wilsher.
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