As a professional reviewer, I’ve seen a good portion of tech product releases. But honestly, I can say that Samsung’s First Look 2021 was the first time a launch presentation brought me to tears.
I’m also a member of the disability community, and at the Samsung First Look event last week, I attended an encouraging example of great technology that spans all skill levels and in a big way. Samsung’s new QLED and Neo QLED TVs have extensive accessibility features that make it possible for more people to use the remote control, find content and fully experience what’s on the screen. The initiative, called “Screens for Everyone,” provides new parameters that specifically benefit those with visual and hearing disabilities. But, as with wheelchair ramps, subtitles, and automatic steering, the advances that benefit the disabled community often benefit us all. (After all, eventually everyone experiences a disability.)
What are the accessibility features?
In a video released last week, Samsung outlined a series of features aimed specifically at people with low vision, blind, hearing impaired and deaf. (Go to 11:10 of the video for more information on the subject.) And while it may not meet everyone’s particular needs, it’s a promising start.
- Sign language avatar: An on-screen avatar can even guide you through the features of the TV.
- Subtitles and positions: Subtitles usually go through the bottom of the screen, and it’s also where many programs usually run text, such as tickers or weather updates. Two overlapping lines of text make it very difficult to read, but positioning the subtitles allows you to move the subtitles anywhere on the screen that makes the most sense for the current program. Subtitles can also be set to fill automatically.
- Sign language recognition: Sign language users will be able to interact with their TV using sign language, as others have been able to use voice control.
- Voice guide: For the visually impaired, Voice Guide identifies both the current channel and the volume level.
- SeeColors: Much more advanced than a simple RGB setting, SeeColors performs a series of color-oriented vision tests to ensure that the colors on the screen align better with what the viewer can see.
- High contrast: With a redesigned set of chips, Samsung’s high-contrast settings make it easy to view all menus without affecting the video itself.
- Learn the remote control: A special program on Samsung’s latest TVs will allow low-vision users to know what they do and where the remote buttons are located. If you press the button and the TV announces what the button is.
- Learn menu screen: As with Learn Remote Control, the Learn menu screen describes the design of the menus and what the different selections do.
- Grayscale: To fine-tune text and images, the entire screen can be converted to black and white.
- Color inversion: Another way to increase the visibility of some users is to invert the colors of the screen.
- Multi-output audio: Having hearing problems no longer means that others in the house have to endure the TV screaming. Multi-output audio lets you direct sound to the soundbar and Bluetooth headsets, for example, at different volume levels.
- Zoom in: As its name suggests, this feature expands the text on the screen for easy reading.
- Audio description: Standard closed titles are not enough. The audio description goes so far as to describe scenes and hand gestures for the listener to get the full picture.
- Sign language extension: Sign language users will be happy to know that another great accessibility feature is sign language zoom. This feature allows users to expand the frame of the sign language of the window up to 200% larger to facilitate the interpretation of signs and gestures.
- Remote button repeat: For those with limited motor function, push-hold functions like lowering the volume and scrolling through the channels can move too fast. This option slows down scrolling to make it easier to stop in the right place.
Prioritization of accessibility
Credit: Samsung
The NEO QLED features all of Samsung’s most advanced accessibility features.
The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide there are more than 466 million people experiencing “hearing impairments” and more than 2.2 million people with some form of visual impairment. As the world’s largest TV maker, with approximately 20% market share, Samsung has a unique position to have an effective impact on the disabled community.
Many of the features described by Samsung were already available on previous models and some, such as the ability to customize subtitles, are common to many brands. Some, however, specifically automatic subtitles, sign language recognition, and voice guidance, are more recent and developed directly with the Royal National Institute of Blind People and people with low vision and deafness.
“At Samsung, we try to provide them with the same level of visual experience as all of our consumers,” said JH Han, president of Visual Electronics Business at Samsung Electronics.
The First Look 2021 video includes some really touching moments when people with different disabilities interact with the new features. The segment closes with engineer Samsung Byungho Kim, legally blind since 1995, who has been a force for inclusive design within the company in a wide variety of products, including screen readers, an e-learning platform, washing machines and mobile devices.
“My life changed after I went blind,” Kim said in 2018. “I started thinking more about how I could help other people like me. I thought about ways to develop lessons and volunteer programs and how to enable people with disabilities use our products more easily. This unit has made me a better person. “
Slow but steady progression of accessibility
Credit: Samsung
Samsung’s focus on accessibility is part of a larger and much-welcome trend of the big technologies.
The new accessibility configuration will be available on all QLED and Neo QLED 2021 models: premium models in the 2021 range that may prove out of reach for many customers.
However, the bright focus that Samsung chose to give accessibility during a global press event seems like a big step forward. And with major companies like Samsung and Microsoft standardizing accessible design first, there is hope that improving accessibility will be cheaper and more available in the coming years.
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