In the survey, participants were also asked about access barriers they encountered when using devices to access video programming (specifically, television and movies) and eBooks. Follow-up questions for those who did use a device explored how frequently the service posed barriers to accessibility, and what specific barriers were encountered.
Video Programming
Participants were asked about the barriers they encountered when using various types of video programming devices. Table 12 lists the number of users and the percentage of occasional barriers and frequent barriers for each video programming device. A majority of participants reported at least occasional barriers with each method.
Table 13: Specific Video Programming Barriers
| Barrier | Cable (n=130) | Conventional TV (n=118) | SmartTV (n=135 | Web Streaming (n=102) | App Streaming (n=121) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AD unavailable | 85 (65.4%) | 73 (61.9%) | 85 (63.0%) | 59 (57.8%) | 80 (66.1%)/td> |
| Menu navigation | 66 (50.8%) | 64 (54.2%) | 80 (59.3%) | 49 (48.0%) | 64 (52.9%) |
| Can’t turn on AD | 64 (49.2%) | 57 (48.3%) | 67 (49.6%) | 47 (46.1%) | 52 (43.0%) |
| Can’t access settings menu | 64 (49.2%) | 63 (53.4%) | 55 (40.7%) | 33 (32.4%) | 33 (27.3%) |
| Can’t select channel/show | 38 (29.2%) | 23 (19.5%) | 44 (32.6%) | 30 (29.4%) | 41 (33.9%) |
| AD hard to hear | 32 (24.6%) | 27 (22.9%) | 27 (20.0%) | 18 (17.6%) | 29 (24.0%) |
| Size/contrast of menu | 29 (22.3%) | 20 (16.9%) | 31 (23.0%) | 26 (25.5%) | 20 (16.5%) |
| AD is not effective for the content | 30 (23.1%) | 23 (19.5%) | 24 (17.8%) | 18 (17.6%) | 29 (24.0%) |
| Can’t turn on captions | 23 (17.7%) | 25 (21.2%) | 25 (18.5%) | 16 (15.7%) | 15 (12.4%) |
| Sum of barriers | 431 | 375 | 438 | 296 | 363 |
An additional 33 participants reported on barriers they encountered with television devices not listed above. These barriers were similar and included audio description unavailable (20, 60.6%), Can’t turn on audio description (19, 57.6%), Can’t access settings menu (14, 42.4%) and Can’t navigate the menus (13, 39.4%). Other barriers were reported by less than one-third of participants in this area.
Finally, participants were invited to share open-ended feedback about their experiences accessing video content. Some participants reported that having missing or inconsistent audio descriptions was very frustrating (n=7). Other participants discussed how every application and remote control is different, thereby making it difficult to navigate (n=4). One participant wrote, “Too many remote controls...too much navigation... too much to figure out. It's easier not to watch television or movies... I'll read a book.”
eBooks
About two-thirds of participants reported that they read electronic books, or eBooks (n=210). Of those, 53 (25.2%) use a dedicated eBook reader. One hundred sixty-eight (80%) participants use smartphones to read eBooks. Computer apps were used by 75 (35.7%) people and websites by 87 (41.4%) people. Some participants also reported using BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) Services and blindness-specific devices such as the Victor Reader Trek. Overall, only 30.2% of respondents were consistently able to access eBooks without accessibility barriers. Barriers were encountered less than half the time by 53.3% of users, and more than half the time by 15.6%.
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