Beverly,
I don't know what Verizon is planning for their voice remote. However, I can
tell you that I think you'll love this method of interaction, whether it's with
an Alexa unit, Google Home or the Comcast remote control.
Lately, I haven't been exploring the third party skills for Alexa the way I did
when I first got my Echo. However, I love the freedom of being able to set
alarms with just a voice command. While this may seem very simplistic my wife
and I love being able to add items to a shopping list by voice. Before we got
Alexa i would often forget to let her know we were out of something. Now, as
soon as one of us realizes this we just say "Alexa, add eggs to the list" or
whatever the item is and it shows up in the app. When my wife goes shopping she
opens the app and sees the list with everything we've added since the last
trip. It's also nice to be able to access radio stations, both on-air and
Internet-based, with your voice. If you own music purchased by Amazon or if
you're an Amazon Prime member you can just ask for a song, album or just a
genre and it gets played. You can say skip, stop, softer, louder or something
like "set volume to 2" for a low volume and it happens. Alexa can also play
books you may have purchased through Audible and, to a large extent, can read
Kindle books as well, in her own voice. When I first heard about the Amazon
Echo I'll admit I thought it was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard. I would have
never purchased one. However, my wife's father decided to purchase one for us
as a Christmas gift. I figured that, if someone was willing to spend money to
buy one for us, I would at least use it. Within the first week I did a complete
180 in my thinking and now I want one in every room of the house.
As far as the Comcast remote, it's awesome. The channel lineup I have at work
is different from the one I have at home and I'm not interested in memorizing
channel names with their corresponding numbers. With the remote, I don't have
to. I can speak the name of a channel, like BBC World NEWS or EWTN and it just
selects that channel. You can even turn on Voice Guidance by saying Voice
Guidance into the remote, which is even faster than the shortcut. You can speak
the name of a show and it gives you options for that show, whether it's on your
DVR, or on demand. You can say "Record" followed by the name of a show and it
takes you to the relevant menu to confirm the recording. Here's a list of other
things you can say to the remote, which I've extracted from one of Comcast's
help articles.
Text with bullets are the examples for voice commands.
To change the channel using the X1 Voice Remote, press the Microphone (Mic)
button, which activates Voice Control, and say something similar to the
following voice commands:
• "ESPN."
• "Watch Disney Junior."
• "832."
• "Watch channel 810."
• "Turn on Discovery Channel."
Voice commands can also be used to search for TV shows and movies:
• "Watch Paw Patrol."
• "Play The Voice."
• "Pitch Perfect."
• "Monday Night Football.”
Find an actor, director, music artist or personality:
• "Tom Cruise."
• "Search for Scarlett Johansson."
• "Jimmy Fallon."
• "Find Taylor Swift."
Find what song is playing on your TV screen:
• "What song is this?"
• "What song is playing?"
Explore sports by team, event, school and more:
• "What games are on?"
• "Turn on the Bulls game."
• "When is the next Seahawks game?"
• "Islanders."
• "Florida Gators."
• "Golf."
Get recommendations, and find out what's popular now:
• "What should I watch?"
• "What's trending?"
• "What's on tonight at eight o'clock?"
• "Show me more like Frozen."
Browse Xfinity On Demand:
• "Find documentaries on Starz."
• "Free movies for kids."
Accessibility features for customers with disabilities:
• Set Your Accessibility Preferences:
◦ "Accessibility Settings."
◦ "Turn on Closed Captioning."
◦ "Turn on Voice Guidance."
◦ "Turn on video description."
• Find content:
◦ "Shows with video description."
◦ "Accessibility Awareness." (Content collection)
• Get Accessibility Information:
◦ "Accessibility Tips."
◦ "Accessibility Help."
Control DVR functionality:
• "Record."
• "What's on my DVR?"
• "Go to my recordings."
• "Fast Forward."
• "Pause."David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist
WWW.David-Goldfield.Com<http://WWW.David-Goldfield.Com>
On 7/31/2018 3:51 PM, Beverly Wieland wrote:
Greetings, everyone.
I am the friend of David Goldfield who has been using Verizon Fios text to
speech since last January.
I've had Fios since 2008, but did not realize there were accessibility features
built in until David told me about the voice guided Comcast system.
Previous to January I had been entering channels using the number pad on the
remote as well as using mute, fast forward/rewind and pause.
When I wanted to record something I did this through the Verizon web page and
asked my sighted husband to locate it for me in the DVR menu when I wanted to
view my recording.
Using text to speech gives me much more independence, but it is hidden in their
menus (like on the iPhone, except that there is no equivalent to triple click
home).
Yes, Martin, you can record and access recordings using Verizon Fios text to
speech (once it is turned on).
This can be done independently by a blind person with instructions. But I
don't always press the keys on the remote firmly enough to activate them.
Text to speech is under main menu; settings; system; accessibility.
Under accessibility there are three options -- text to speech, DVS and closed
captions.
Once an option is turned on, it remains on until turned off.
With text to speech you can press DVR; view recordings.
Arrowing up and down gives a list of all recordings. Movies and individual
program specials are individual entries, while a series is like a folder with
individual recordings under it.
Press select to view, and delete to remove.
Unfortunately this process does not always go smoothly. Sometimes ads pop up
that are not spoken. When I hear silence, I press escape and try again.
Recordings can be done by going into the full guide; then locating the channel
and program you want to record.
I find it easiest to select the channel before going into the guide, and to
program something on the day it is shown.
Otherwise I have to continually right arrow until I find the program, unless
there is something I'm missing.
You can confirm a recording by going into DVR and selecting "scheduled
recordings" instead of "view recordings."
Now that I've mastered this I record using DVR with text to speech rather than
the Verizon web page.
I like Fios internet and the TV system. I did use Comcast earlier without
accessibility, and liked the channel layout of Verizon. Categories such as
shopping channels, religious channels, etc., are grouped together. Choice music
channels are together and have the highest channel numbers.
I was thinking about switching to Comcast strictly for accesibility, since my
impression from David is that they are very interested and I'm not sure about
Verizon's commitment.
I have two issues with their system, so far!
As I mentioned earlier, there is no equivalent to triple click home. I
confirmed this with a technical support person on the phone today. Thank you,
Martin, for asking questions that encouraged me to do some research. Next to
the 0 they do have an on-off button for closed captions, which I didn't know.
When the technician told me that I said we could use two more such buttons --
one for text to speech and one for DVS. My call was recorded, and he says they
take our feedback seriously.
The first time I turned on DVS I thought I could just leave it on all the time
so it would be there when needed. But some channels which I guess do not have
programming on the SAP channel were blank!
My husband would like to turn off text to speech when he is using the TV alone
because he finds it obnoxious; he feels the same about talking GPS.
Sometimes even I would like to turn it off because of my second issue.
When I press pause while watching something, I get feedback suchas:
Paused, Sixty Minutes, elapsed time 00 33 02.
I would like the choice to turn that off if I want to because I obviously know
what I'm watching and can usually tell how far I am through the program.
But what is even worse is that when I press play (pause/play is a toggle
switch) I get:
Play Sixty Minutes ...
with the same message as before.
This covers any verbal feedback going on live. If I stop in the middle of a
newscast where I don't want to miss anything, I have to rewind once.
My husband says that the short feedback message when pausing or resuming play
is sometimes replaced by the original long message:
Sixty Minutes, season 50, episode 43. recorded date 7 o'clock P.M. July 22.
This message is needed when selecting the program in the first place, but not
every time you pause or play!
I gave that feedback on the call as well, and was told there is no way to
selectively choose what I don't want to hear.
The tech person said that starting soon (I think next month) Verizon will be
featuring new set top boxes on their commercials that allow the user to speak
to the remote.
That would be quicker, I suppose, although I'm not yet an Amazon Echo user to
know how much that really helps.
But does Verizon care about other features?
I am grateful for the independence text to speech gives me, and am not sure
whether I'm wrong to be frustrated.
I guess I'm spoiled by the control VoiceOver gives me on iOS products.
So, Martin, the short answer is that text to speech will do what you need.
I hope this helps, and please feel free to reply if you have questions.
Beverly Wieland
bwieland@xxxxxxxx<mailto:bwieland@xxxxxxxx>
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