When you first activate your TV, you will hear a series of sounds in fairly rapid succession. The TV has a few more functions than a traditional Fire TV streaming device, but the majority of the interface is identical.
This PDF is also tagged properly for screen readers. The VoiceView for Fire TV user's guide provides a solid description of VoiceView and an overview of the Fire TV operating system.
Note: the manual and guide are meant to provide instructions for the TV itself but have little information on the Fire TV operating system. The main problem I encountered when reading the manual and guide was diagrams tended to be jumbled. The PDFs are not tagged but the automatic tagging provided by Adobe reader provides decent access to the guide and manual including linked sections in the manual. Both are available on the Insignia product page in PDF format. The TV has both a quick start guide and a manual. A power button is in the top right of the remote. In addition to the buttons found on a Fire TV remote (Microphone, Left/Right/Up/Down navigation ring, Select, Back, Home, Menu, Rewind, Play/Pause, and Fast Forward) the remote contains a dedicated TV button, vertical volume rocker, mute button, and a set of rectangular buttons which launch various streaming services such as Prime and Netflix. I could not find a detailed description of the TV remote online, but VoiceView provides a detailed and helpful description after it is launched. If you are familiar with a Fire TV remote or have read a description of such on the VoiceView help page, you will likely be able to determine what the buttons on the top portion of the remote do. The remote is similar to a Fire TV or Echo remote but with a few additions that may make it somewhat unfamiliar. Screws hold the bases in place and the holes in which these should be inserted were decently tactile, so I had no problem attaching the bases without sighted assistance. These are slightly curved inward and the back is slightly shorter than the front so it is easy to determine which should be attached to which side. The TV sits on two bases, each at the far right and left.
To the far right of the back of the device you will find the power connector. On the back of the device, you will find an area containing the coaxial antenna/cable connector, a set of RCA audio/video connectors, and an Ethernet port from left to right respectively. From top to bottom, these are: a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a Digital Optical Audio output, a USB port, and three HDMI ports (1-3 from top to bottom). Most of the available ports are found on the left side of the TV. The TV is a traditional flat screen television with a single button that serves as both power and an input button found on the underside of the TV towards the front and left. Hardware and Documentationīefore discussing the television's functions, lets first look at the hardware itself.
In this review, I will discuss the television's hardware and software with a particular focus on using the device's television features, but will also discuss using the Fire TV operating system and the VoiceView screen reader more broadly. Note: Toshiba offers a line of televisions that also include the Fire software and that other screen sizes are available with the same operating system. For this review, I used the Insignia 32 Inch Fire TV Edition (Model NS-32DF310NA19).
Having used my own Fire TV Stick, I was excited to hear the operating system had been included on a television. We reviewed the preview version of VoiceView, the screen reader found on the Fire TV in September 2016, and it has improved since that review. Amazon has entered the accessible smart TV arena with two lines of televisions from Insignia and Toshiba that use the Fire TV software as the TV's operating system. Though smartphones, tablets, and computers have become increasingly accessible in recent years, fully accessible televisions are a more recent phenomenon.