People who are blind or otherwise visually impaired spend about as much time engaged with the TV as the general public, according to a study released by Comcast and the American Foundation for the Blind.

The study, conducted by Global Strategy Group and based on a survey last October and November of 626 visually-impaired adults, including 277 with “no function vision,”  found that the majority (55%) of that group watches four or more hours per day, and 81% do so for more than 1 hour per day.

The study also found that 96% of visually impaired adults spend time with TV on a regular basis, and that 53% said they experienced difficulty in following along with key visual elements. Less than half of those surveyed were aware of assistive technologies like video description and talking guides.

The use of video descriptions and talking guides is a key part of Comcast’s work around accessibility.

Of recent note, Comcast and NBCU have teamed with Descriptive Video Works to provide enhanced video descriptions for coverage of the Winter Games from PyeongChang.

RELALTED: NBC Olympics, Comcast to Offer Video Descriptions for Winter Olympics TV Coverage

In November 2014, Comcast introduced a “talking guide” feature for its X1 platform following a set of trials that were conducted earlier that year. When enabled, the feature reads aloud elements such as channel names, show titles, VOD settings and DVR commands as the customer navigates the guide with an X1 remote.

"It’s a myth to think that you can’t enjoy television just because you have a visual disability,” Tom Wlodkowski, vice president of accessibility for Comcast, who was born blind, said in a statement. “That’s why I’m proud that Comcast and NBC have become pioneers in making live entertainment and sporting events more accessible for millions of people like me. And when that content is complemented with the right technology, people with visual disabilities can have an end-to-end experience that is even more inclusive and entertaining.”

Comcast and AFB said results from the survey were weighted to correspond to national data about the visually impaired population, and was designed to be compatible with screen readers and screen magnifiers.

Billing it as a first for a live entertainment broadcast show in the U.S., Comcast said it will include video descriptions with NBC’s production of The Wiz Live!, an element that will make the show accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.

During NBC’s live broadcast, set to start Thursday, Dec. 3 (also the International Day of Persons with Disabilities) at 8 p.m. ET, the video description component will provide a narration track that’s included between the natural pauses in dialogue that describes visual elements of show, such as facial expressions, settings, information about costumes, and stage direction (this brief video offers a more thorough explanation).

Comcast and NBC, which are partnering with Descriptive Video Works, said the described broadcast of The Wiz Live! is a national pilot program that will be available wherever SAP (secondary audio program) feeds are available.

“Comcast’s commitment to include video description with the performance of The Wiz Live! is ground-breaking," said Kim Charlson, president of The American Council of the Blind (ACB). "The path to accessibility is a journey of inclusion of all audiences. Just like the yellow brick road is the path to the heartfelt wishes of Dorothy and her friends, the blindness community is very happy to travel on this new path with Comcast and NBC."

The effort follows other features and technologies Comcast has launched to help make its video service more accessible to people with disabilities, including a “talking guide” for its X1 platform, a voice-enabled TV menu and interface, and a voice-controlled remote control.

"The combination of accessible content and technology is powerful," said Tom Wlodkowski, Comcast’s vice president of accessibility, who noted in this blog post that live description is usually reserved for events like Inaugural Addresses.  "We’re working hard every day to make a positive impact in the lives of millions of customers by making our products and services more accessible and opening new doors to independence for people with disabilities. The broadcast of The Wiz Live! represents a real milestone in how people with visual impairments experience television."

"Earlier this year, I attended a theater production of The Wiz and without description, found it very difficult to follow the characters and action of the play," said Carl Augusto, CEO of the American Foundation for the Blind. "This nationally described television broadcast will not only be a godsend to people with vision loss, but also to those who describe action to people with vision loss, and the general public, who will learn about the importance of audio description."

Comcast recently added support for Spanish to a “talking guide” that was introduced last year to the MSO’s cloud-powered X1 platform for the blind and visually disabled. 

“We’re now expanding the feature to better serve our Spanish-speaking customers, with the launch of the Spanish Talking Guide,” Javier Garcia, Comcast’s VP and GM of multicultural services, explained in this blog post. “When turned on, a female voice will read aloud selections like program titles, network names and time slots as well as DVR and On Demand settings in Spanish, helping viewers decide what to watch.”

X1 subs can activate the Spanish talking guide tapping the "A" button twice on their remote control when their menu language preference is set to Spanish. The feature also can be turned on via the "accessibility settings" within the main settings menu.

Garcia noted that Spanish is the predominant spoken language in bicultural homes in the U.S., and that Comcast has made the feature available to more than 6 million Hispanic households in its service areas.

Following a trial period, the X1 talking guide went live almost a year ago.  Garcia said the feature was activated at least once on almost 1 million set-top boxes last month, double the activation rate in June, and “we tracked close to 100 million utterances.  

Comcast is deploying about 40,000 X1 boxes per day.

Comcast subscribers have activated the operator's new “talking guide” on more than 650,000 X1 set-top boxes nationwide as of April 2015, Tom Wlodkowski, Comcast Cable’s VP of audience, announced Tuesday in this blog post.

Following a set of trials last summer, Comcast formally introduced the talking guide for its X1 platform last November, extending a feature that is tailored to the needs of customers who are blind or visually impaired or use English as a second language. The Voice Guidance component, which features a female voice and is driven by Comcast’s cloud-powered X1 platform, reads aloud channel names, show titles, video-on-demand settings and even DVR commands as the customer navigates the guide with the X1’s standard remote control.

Wlodkowski, who is blind, also shared some customer feedback on the feature and noted that the X1 talking guide “tracked more than 73 million utterances – the announcement of a channel, show title or menu item being read aloud” in April alone.

He shared those stats, along with some feedback from customers who use the X1 talking guide, the day after it was honored by FCC chairman Tom Wheeler in the fourth annual Chairman’s Awards for Advancement in Accessibility. Comcast won in the video description category.

Comcast’s talking guide has received similar recognition from the Associated Services for the Blind, the American Association of People with Disabilities and the American Foundation for the Blind.

“While awards and recognition are great, we know we are still just scratching the surface of what’s possible in the accessibility space,” Wlodkowski said.

Comcast used Twitter to announce that a new “Talking Guide” for its X1 platform for customers who are blind or visually impaired has gone live.

Tom Wlodkowski, Comcast’s VP of accessibility, who is blind and played a key role in the development of the feature, blogged about the launch and posted a video that shows the talking guide in action.

“Starting in a few weeks, customers will be able to hear channel names and numbers, time slots and program details read aloud,” he wrote. “Things that many people take for granted like programming your DVR or choosing what movie to rent will be easier than ever for people with a vision or reading disability.”

Customers can activate the talking guide by tapping the “A” button twice on their remote control or by turning it on via the X1 guide’s “accessibility settings” menu.

Comcast detailed the effort last month, explaining how the talking guide uses the X1’scloud-based platform to read aloud channel names, show titles, VOD settings and DVR commands.

Comcast said at the time that future versions of the X1 talking guide will add search functionality and additional personalization settings that, for example, will allow the customer to determine the rate of speech.

Comcast has deployed more than 5 million X1 boxes so far but hasn’t announced how many of its customers are on the platform.

Following a small set of trials conducted over the summer, Comcast is preparing to expand the availability of a new “talking guide” for its X1 interface, adding a feature that’s tailored to the needs of customers who are blind or visually impaired or use English as a second language.

This new Voice Guidance element, which features a female voice and is driven by Comcast’s cloud-powered X1 platform, reads aloud channel names, show titles, video-on-demand settings and even DVR commands as the customer navigates the guide with the X1’s standard remote control.

The voice-based component also calls out individual program descriptions and ratings from Common Sense Media  (Comcast added those kid-friendly ratings to X1 in October) as well as Rotten Tomatoes. Customers will be able to activate the talking guide by tapping the “A” button twice on their remote control or by flipping it on via the X1 guide’s “accessibility settings” menu.  Comcast said the talking guide feature will also help users turn on other accessibility settings such as the secondary audio program (SAP), which is sometimes used to provide viewers with descriptions of on-screen visuals when there are pauses in spoken dialogue.

Future versions of the X1 talking guide will add search functionality and additional personalization settings that, for example, will allow the customer to determine the rate of speech, Comcast said.

Comcast demonstrated an early version of the talking guide at The Cable Show earlier this year and started to test the feature with about 20 visually-impaired customers in July. The American Council of the Blind participated in the trial.

Comcast plans to launch the talking guide commercially “in the next few weeks,” making it available to all X1 customers. Comcast has not announced how many of its 22.3 million video customers are on the X1 platform, but the MSO did reveal last month that it has deployed more than 5 million X1 boxes so far. 

Billing it as the industry’s first voice-guided TV interface, the X1 talking guide is a product of Comcast’s Accessibility Lab, and arrives about two years after Comcast hired Tom Wlodkowski, the MSO’s vice president of audience and exec who has been blind since birth, to focus on the usability of the company’s products and services by people with disabilities.

The talking guide is a “real game-changer for anyone who is blind and loves TV,” said Wlodkowski, who demonstrated the feature last week at Comcast’s corporate headquarters in Philadelphia.

Roughly 19 million U.S. homes have at least one member with a disability, according to a recent American Housing Survey, and 8.1 million people have a visual disability, according to U.S. Census data.

The X1 talking guide got its start in 2012 in preparation for an upcoming Lab Week put on by Comcast that was focused on accessibility. Engineers and other employees started work on a component for X1 that they labeled “Text to Speech” at the time.

“Television is universally loved, and we want everyone to be able to enjoy it,” Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “The talking guide feature will enable all of our customers to experience the X1 platform in a new way, and give our blind and visually impaired customers the freedom to independently explore and navigate thousands of shows and movies.  We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible in the accessibility space and we are thrilled to have Tom and his team leading the charge.”

More about the X1 talking guide and its development will be featured in the November 17 issue of Multichannel News.