How to
navigate the TVNZ OnDemand service with NVDA
Have there been times when you have missed your
favourite TV show on the television? Even though, now on certain
channels here in New Zealand, you can watch the same show when it
is played an hour later, there are times you still miss the show
you want to watch. If the person is lucky enough, they might have
a PVR (Personal video recorder) with which to record the
show; However, these units are inaccessible to the visually
impaired and blind, so a sighted person will be needed to record
the show. Being recorded off the TV set, it will also record the
audio description track that airs with certain TV shows (as long
as it has been enabled first on the unit) for example Coronation
Street, Shortland Street and so on.
When the same show goes to the on demand service, at present you
will not be able to play the show with audio description. However,
if you still want to catch up on the show (even though it is not
audio described) please read on. Most TV on demand services will
roughly have the same layout to navigate around.
Signing up for a
TVNZ OnDemand account
The very first thing you will have to do is sign
up for a TVNZ OnDemand account. This will be used to sign in and
watch your shows online. Please note, you may have to increase
your broadband allowance, so that you can watch a lot more content
online. If you cannot remember the web address for the on
demand service for channel one or two, you can always go to the
main page of the website - for example http://www.tvone.co.nz
Then, you would have to locate the TV on demand link service that
is on the main page. A quick link to this page is https://www.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand
The next step is to locate the login/register link on that page,
then press the Enter key. When the next page comes up, you will
need to locate the sign up heading. Under this section, it will
give you the option to sign up for a new account or log in if you
have already created one before. Locate the sign up button, then
press the Enter key. It will ask you for certain details such as
your name, age and so on. It will also ask for an email address,
so your account can be verified.
Then after the form has been filled out, it will send an email to
your inbox, and this will need to be clicked on to verify the
account when you go to sign into the TVNZ OnDemand service.
The TV OnDemand service that will be used, will be for Channel One
and Channel Two here in New Zealand.
You will need to go back to the page where it has the sign
in/register link on it. It may be a good idea to bookmark this
page for later reference and make it easier to find. The next time
you go to log in, it is a matter of just entering your email
address and your password, then signing in. The page to log into
your account can be found here https://www.tvnz.co.nz/ondemand
After you have
signed into your TVNZ OnDemand account
You can jump around the online service with your
single letter navigation keys using NVDA (for example H for
headings, K for links, L for list and so on). You can use
your Alt + left arrow key to take you back a page on the website
and the Alt + right arrow key to take you forwards a page. This
will only work if you have been to those pages first. To
quickly get to different parts of the page you can also use the
elements list in NVDA. It may be a good idea to get a feel
of the page with NVDA to see how the page/pages have been set out.
Use the NVDA key + the down arrow key to read the page for
you. You will notice it has been broken up into different
sections (for example TRENDING, EXPRESS FROM OVERSEAS, NEW ZEALAND
VS. AUSTRALIA, TV2 FAVOURITES and so on).
The new player for the TV One on demand service
Below
will be the name of the buttons and sliders in the player.
To
interact with any of the buttons the easiest way is to use the
Ctrl key + Home key to go to the top of the page. Next, while in
browse mode in NVDA use the letter B to jump down the page by
buttons. Stop on any of the buttons you want to interact with.
Press the spacebar to interact with the buttons.
To
interact with the sliders you will need to change into focus mode
on the slider. You can use either the up or down, or left or right
arrow keys to adjust the slider.
After
you have done that you will need to go back into browse mode again
to navigate around the page. You will have to change between the
two modes if you want to interact with the other sliders. To
change between browse mode (where you can use single letter
navigation keys) and focus mode (where you can type into an
editable area) use the NVDA key + spacebar. This will change you
between the modes if done more than once, and will also let you
interact with some of the controls.
The
player controls are below
Play
button
Just
under the play button you will need to change into focus mode to
adjust the volume with the arrow keys. Change back into browse
mode to stop interacting with the volume slider.
Button
Mute
Current
Time (01:07 is how far you are into the show or movie).
/
(separates the current time and total duration time)
Duration
Time (19:04 is how long the show or movie is).
Loaded:
0% (0:00)
Progress:
0% (01:07)
Button
Fullscreen
Browsing,
playing an episode of a show, and using your TVNZ OnDemand
watchlist (adding and removing episodes)
In this same section (after you have logged in)
you will also find a heading called watch list. This section will
have a list of shows that you have added previously, or are
currently watching.
As you browse around the page to get a feel of the layout, there
may be shows that you find of interest. If not, you can also
search under a section called A - Z. This will have a list of all
the TV shows starting with that letter. When you have located this
link, and pressed the Enter key, the next page that comes up - you
will be able to jump down by headings to the shows starting with
that letter (for example the letter C).
To jump down by shows starting with that letter, use the letter K
in NVDA while in browse mode. This will let you jump down by links
starting with that letter. If the letter G is used, it will jump
you down by graphics. Locate the show you want to watch (for
example Criminal Minds). Next, press the Enter key. The next page
that comes up will give you brief details on the latest show you
may want to watch (for example what the episode is about that
night, the starting time, running time and channel it is on). To
watch the latest episode of Criminal Minds, locate the watch
latest episode link, then press the Enter key. The show will
automatically start playing for you. To pause the show at any
time, go to the top of the page. Next, press the letter O. This
will land you on the player. NVDA will say embedded object. Press
the divide key on the numeric keypad, so NVDA does a left click.
Your show now will be paused. To start the show off again, press
the divide key again and the show will start at the spot you left
off. If focus is lost for any reason, you will have to do the
process again. You can pause any of your shows and watch them at a
later date where you left off by repeating the process. To
get yourself out of the embedded object with NVDA, use the Ctrl
key + Spacebar + NVDA key. This key combination will get you out
of the flash object.
If there are episodes of the show you have missed, you can go back
and watch them by locating the EPISODES heading. Here it will have
a list of earlier shows for that series (for example Criminal
Minds Episode 21 with a date). The shows are only kept for a
period of time (such as a month). To view any of these
episodes, locate the play link, then press the Enter key. Now your
show will start playing for you.
Any of the shows that may be of interest to you can be added to
your watch list or to your Favourites. It is a matter of locating
the link called add to watch list (or add to favourites), and
pressing the Enter key. If you added the show to your watch list,
the next time you visit your watch list, that particular show
should show under the section called watch list. Remember, they
time out after a period of time. The shows that have been added to
your watch list can also be removed. Locate the shows heading (for
example Criminal Minds), then locate the remove from watch list
link. Press the Enter key and it will be removed from the watch
list section. You will notice this by jumping down to the Watch
list section and seeing it is no longer there.
Adding and
removing a series to your TVNZ OnDemand Favourites
To add a series of a show to your favourites,
locate a show you want to watch (for example Criminal Minds). When
you come to the page where all of the episodes are listed, locate
the name of the show (Criminal Minds). Just under the heading will
be two links. One will be add to watchlist, and the other will be
add to favourites. Press the Enter key on the second one, and it
will be added to your favourites. This can also be removed by
going back to the same section, locating the remove from
favourites link and pressing the Enter key. That series will now
be removed from your favourites.
Your favourite shows can be located under the My Shows link.
The My Shows
section on TVNZ OnDemand
Make sure you check out the different
links/sections in the TVNZ OnDemand section. Under this
section, it will list shows you have added to your watch list, and
also a history of the shows you have previously watched.
Signing out of
your TVNZ OnDemand account
To log out of your account, you will need to
locate your user name (for example Kenny) on the page that you are
on. After you have located your user name, you will need to route
the mouse to it. Use the NVDA key + the divide key on the numeric
keypad to do this. This is a mouse over link. This will bring up a
sub menu. You may have to arrow up or down to locate this menu.
Locate the log out link, then press the Enter key and then you
will be logged out of that service.