Make Google TV more accessible

You can use a screen reader, closed captions, switch access and more to make your Google TV device more accessible.

Use a screen reader

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Under 'Services', select TalkBack Enable OK.

Change screen reader settings

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Under 'Services', select TalkBack Configuration.
3. Change settings for speech volume, verbosity (such as keyboard echo and usage hints) and spoken passwords.

Tip: To find more options and settings for TalkBack, such as speech rate and intonation, in the Accessibility menu, select text-to-speech.

Turn on closed captions

Important: Your caption preferences might not apply to certain apps.

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility Captions.
2. To show captions, turn on Display.
3. Choose your options.

Turn on high-contrast text

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Turn on High-contrast text (experimental).

Turn on switch access

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Under 'Services', select Switch Access Enable OK.

Tip: Learn more about using switch access for Android.

Turn on Time to take action

You can change the amount of time that messages are displayed on your device.

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Select Time to take action.
3. Set how long you want to show temporary messages that ask you to take action.

Turn on bounce keys

Important: To access this feature, your device must run Android version 16 or newer.

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Turn on bounce keys.
   • This is to ignore repeated presses of the same button.
3. To ignore the repeated key presses, select the required timing.

Turn on Key repeat delay

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Select Key repeat delay.
   • This is to adjust the delay before the key repeats.
3. Configure the delay before repeated characters appear when a key is held down.

Use accessibility shortcuts

Important: Accessibility shortcuts are a quick way to turn on accessibility features. To use accessibility shortcuts, you first need to turn them on.

To turn on accessibility shortcuts:

1. From the Google TV home screen, select Settings Accessibility.
2. Select Enable accessibility shortcut.
   • By default, the shortcut turns on TalkBack.
3. To change what's included in the shortcut, select Shortcut service.
4. Choose an option.
5. Select OK.

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

Find content with audio descriptions

Ask Google to find movies with audio descriptions.

1. To get started, press the Google Assistant button on your remote.
2. Say 'Find movies with audio descriptions'.
3. Select any movie from the recommendations that appear on your screen.

Related resources

• Do more with Google Assistant on Google TV
• Control your Android device with Switch Access