TV accessibility, Samsung, Sony, LG or something else?
By
elliot2012, 5 August, 2026
Forum
Smart Home Tech and Gadgets
Hi all, just wondering people's experiences of TV accessibility, in particular, Samsung, Sony and LG. I'm thinking of general screen reader accessibility for menus and settings as well as for streaming apps on the TV.
Samsung is the TV, the remote is accessible but the speech is very robotic. I can turn the TV or have the screen for my window PC. Got it more than 5 years ago.
I have a 50 inch flat panel by Sceptre or maybe it's Spectre? I don't know, probably a Walmart brand. It was a housewarming gift when I first moved into my current residence.
Anyways, it has full voice guidance for its menus and such, but I primarily use it with an Amazon Fire Stick 4G Max device. While the voice guidance built into the television is very robotic, VoiceView β Amazon's proprietary screen reader for their Fire devices β has one of the clearest sounding speech synthesizer I have ever heard. I also get nearly 1000 free channels of television from both the United States, and the United Kingdom. Though admittedly, only perhaps 4% of those are audio described. π
We have a smart tv and the screen reader, when you get used to tv style ui, is quite good though I often need sighted help to start it or through the phone companion app smart things?... But imo if you can just get a dumb tv or monitor and use it with a laptop or anything like apple tv / fire stick, don't ever buy any smart tv or anything really if you can.
I have a Samsung QLED 75-inch TV, and it is a great TV for accessibility. The remote is very tactile, and you can just hold down the volume rocker button to turn on the accessibility. The screen reader is a little bit robotic, but other than that, everything seems to be accessible. I've not extensively tried streaming apps since I'm not the primary owner of the TV, but it is a pretty good option. The Samsung SmartThings app is pretty clean and is pretty accessible with voiceover on my iPhone.
We have an LG O LED 55 inch tv at home. It has a voice gidence which uses the vocalizer voices. Apple tv, Disney +, and some of other apps are accessible but for some reason, Netflix is completely in accessible. I don't know where to write this. But overall experience is very nice, other then sometimes Voice gidence sound completely cuts the media sound and there is no ducking adjustment in settings unfortunately.
I have two Samsung televisions and they are very accessible. The Voice guidance is robotic as suggested but most streaming apps are completely accessible and usable with voice guidance. I cannot comment on LG and other smart TVs but I would recommend the Samsung television as it has 95% accessibility support. It is not perfect but it is completely usable by people with visual impairments.
One really does not need a smart tv. Admittedly its nice to be able to adjust internal television settings if your tv has some kind of voice guidance, but unless you absolutely need to make such changes, the streaming adapter is all you need.
There are so many adapters these days; Roku, ChromeCast, AppleTV, FireStick & FireTV, AndroidTV, Sky Stream... I am probably forgetting one or three.
I laugh whenever I get an advert in the mailbox offering Cable tv service with some random promotional offer. Sadly, I know of a few people whom actually subscribe to cable television service. π
Even with all the streaming tech out there, it's still nice to know your TV is accessible as a backup. I have SkyQ at the moment and while sky has done a fantastic job in making the Sky part of that accessible, streaming apps are completely inaccessible. So there's no watching Amazon Prime on the telly, for example - not unless you're Mrs Bingo, who has signed the telly in our lounge into her own amazon Prime, her own Netflix, etc. and streams away awful programmes to her heart's content. I'm told that streaming apps are accessible through Sky Glass. Obviously, that goes for sky stream as well.
Comments
samsung is meant to be very good
Subject line says it all. But i thought you'd be a SkyGlass man? That is apparently much better now than it was a year or so ago.
I have a flat 32 inches wide TV/ PC screen.
Samsung is the TV, the remote is accessible but the speech is very robotic. I can turn the TV or have the screen for my window PC. Got it more than 5 years ago.
Fire branded for life
I have a 50 inch flat panel by Sceptre or maybe it's Spectre? I don't know, probably a Walmart brand. It was a housewarming gift when I first moved into my current residence.
Anyways, it has full voice guidance for its menus and such, but I primarily use it with an Amazon Fire Stick 4G Max device. While the voice guidance built into the television is very robotic, VoiceView β Amazon's proprietary screen reader for their Fire devices β has one of the clearest sounding speech synthesizer I have ever heard. I also get nearly 1000 free channels of television from both the United States, and the United Kingdom. Though admittedly, only perhaps 4% of those are audio described. π
Samsung is good
We have a smart tv and the screen reader, when you get used to tv style ui, is quite good though I often need sighted help to start it or through the phone companion app smart things?... But imo if you can just get a dumb tv or monitor and use it with a laptop or anything like apple tv / fire stick, don't ever buy any smart tv or anything really if you can.
I like Samsung.
I have a Samsung QLED 75-inch TV, and it is a great TV for accessibility. The remote is very tactile, and you can just hold down the volume rocker button to turn on the accessibility. The screen reader is a little bit robotic, but other than that, everything seems to be accessible. I've not extensively tried streaming apps since I'm not the primary owner of the TV, but it is a pretty good option. The Samsung SmartThings app is pretty clean and is pretty accessible with voiceover on my iPhone.
LG
We have an LG O LED 55 inch tv at home. It has a voice gidence which uses the vocalizer voices. Apple tv, Disney +, and some of other apps are accessible but for some reason, Netflix is completely in accessible. I don't know where to write this. But overall experience is very nice, other then sometimes Voice gidence sound completely cuts the media sound and there is no ducking adjustment in settings unfortunately.
Samsung TV for me
I have two Samsung televisions and they are very accessible. The Voice guidance is robotic as suggested but most streaming apps are completely accessible and usable with voice guidance. I cannot comment on LG and other smart TVs but I would recommend the Samsung television as it has 95% accessibility support. It is not perfect but it is completely usable by people with visual impairments.
With all the streaming adapters available
One really does not need a smart tv. Admittedly its nice to be able to adjust internal television settings if your tv has some kind of voice guidance, but unless you absolutely need to make such changes, the streaming adapter is all you need.
There are so many adapters these days; Roku, ChromeCast, AppleTV, FireStick & FireTV, AndroidTV, Sky Stream... I am probably forgetting one or three.
I laugh whenever I get an advert in the mailbox offering Cable tv service with some random promotional offer. Sadly, I know of a few people whom actually subscribe to cable television service. π
Still nice to have the accessible interface
Even with all the streaming tech out there, it's still nice to know your TV is accessible as a backup. I have SkyQ at the moment and while sky has done a fantastic job in making the Sky part of that accessible, streaming apps are completely inaccessible. So there's no watching Amazon Prime on the telly, for example - not unless you're Mrs Bingo, who has signed the telly in our lounge into her own amazon Prime, her own Netflix, etc. and streams away awful programmes to her heart's content. I'm told that streaming apps are accessible through Sky Glass. Obviously, that goes for sky stream as well.