Make Android TV more accessible

You can use the built-in screen reader, closed captions, and more to make your Android TV experience more accessible.

Important: The features and options you find on your device may differ depending on the Android version and TV model that you use.

Use a screen reader

When you use a screen reader, you can hear what's happening on your TV or monitor.

Important: You need sighted assistance to turn on the screen reader.

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .
2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility TalkBack  Enable.

Change screen reader settings

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .

2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility TalkBack  Configuration.
3. Choose your preferred settings for:
   • Speech volume
   • Verbosity
     • Keyboard echo
     • Usage hints
   • Spoken passwords

Tip: To find more options and settings for TalkBack, like speech rate and intonation, in the Accessibility menu, select Text to speech.

Use closed captions

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .
2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility Captions.
3. Select the source.
4. Choose your options.

Use audio descriptions

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .
2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility Audio description.
3. Choose an option.

Change font size

Important: The font size setting doesn't apply to the Google Chrome app, which has its own font size settings.

To make your font size smaller or larger:

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .
2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility Text and display.
3. Select Font size.
4. To choose your font size, use the slider.

Turn on high contrast text

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .
2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility
3. Turn on High contrast text (Experimental).

Turn on Switch Access

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .
2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility .
3. Under "Services," select Switch Access Enable Ok.

Tip: Learn more about Switch Access for Android.

Use accessibility shortcuts

Accessibility shortcuts are a quick way to turn on accessibility features.

Important: To use accessibility shortcuts, you first need to turn them on.

1. On your Android TV, go to the device Settings .
2. Under "Device Preferences," select Accessibility .
3. Select Enable accessibility shortcut.
   • By default, the shortcut turns on TalkBack.
4. To change the shortcut you want to include, select Shortcut service.
5. Choose a shortcut you want to include.
6. Select Ok.

To use the shortcut, on your remote, press and hold the back arrow and down buttons at the same time for 3 seconds.

Related resources

• Setup your Android TV and remote
• Set up and use Google Assistant on Android TV