Sky+

Hi Alex. The fact is that in recent months, resources have been mostly focused on Sky Q, including the Sky Q apps. That isn't to say that we have forgotten about the above apps and I am following up on what progress can be made here too. I will let you know any further information when I can. Regarding contacting us by email, you can email accessiblecustomerservice@sky.uk
I will ask the mailbox owner to keep an eye out for your name.

thanks for the update, good to know your still monitoring this app, I don't have any particular comments to make on the sky app at this time, I was just concerned in case you suddenly disappeared from applevis like other developers have in the past such as the people who develop BBC iPlayer. as I say I took a look very briefly at sky go and decided not to bother with it, partly because of accessibility, but also because I wasn't seeing a lot of channels on there that I would watch. for example one channel I get on my sky box is the crime and investigation channel but I didn't see that on sky go, is that down to me not seeing it because of accessibility or is it that I can't watch crime and investigation through sky go? if you would like me to I am happy to report on issues with sky go especially if I can actually watch that channel through it. If so would it be better to email you or comment on applevis?

Well disappointingly I've not gone ahead with my Sky Q order. Despite being told at the start of last week I could have the box just for £15 installation, by the time nice and helpful Alison was able to process the order the price went up and now I either have to pay £199 for the box or pay £12 for multiroom despite the fact I don't need multiroom and the boxes are now given to new customers for no extra. I'm getting the impression we shouldn't expect the fixes to the Sky+ app in the near future, if at all which would be a disappointment given the enthusiasm some of us have shown to support sky in making the changes. I still appreciate the updates and your time and effort in feeding back to us though and hopefully sky will in the near future at least decide to let those of us with accessibility issues of the Sky Plus app upgrade to Sky Q at the same cost as new customers.

Hi Alex and Peter. Alex I can assure you that we have not walked away from the forum. I apologise if we can't always get back to a post as quickly as you'd like but will endeavour to do so. As I'm sure you understand there are a wide range of stakeholders and teams within Sky, so reaching the right people etc can take time.
Peter I'm not in a position to discuss pricing etc on this forum I'm afraid, but please do keep an eye on your email and MySky account for any offers that may arise, or give us a call any time.

Hi all, I am writing to get on a bit of a rant I will say that up front, a few days ago we had another update from sky for this app, and we had a rather miserable change log from them the only feature they were saying about was sync for sky mobile customers, and bug fixes and improvements.
I don't even know what the sync for sky mobile customers is exactly, but as regards the rest of the change log its quite pathetic I mean what does bug fixes and improvements actually tell us it tells me that a developer couldn't be bothered to compose a proper change log like so many app developers do these days.

However also on using the new app I see no improvements what so ever in terms of accessibility or any of the new features we suggested, which makes me really question skys corporate attitude to accessibility, while I appreciate the individual from sky accessibility wants to talk and engage with us the fact that we have scene nothing at all what so ever in over 6 months says to me that as a company sky itself sees accessibility as a luxury not a necessity, something optional to spend money on and dedicate only token resources to, I would go so far as to say I see it as a right as we are paying customers and we are getting a shoddy experience for our money.
Sky is a company that makes multi million pound profits and yet what precisely is this money being used for, once accessibility is implemented it won't be an ongoing regular cost it may need occasional maintenance to keep up with new features but provided its looked after properly it won't be an ongoing cost.
The fact that sky has given no real information on progress makes me think that the person we have been dealing with from sky aaccessibility himself cares but his bosses aren't that bothered. I mean lets take a look at this, how many employees do we think sky has working for them, certainly several hundred I would think, but question is how many do they have working in accessibility I suspect the figure is probably in single digits if not only a few certainly on the programming side, when they have the money and resources to invest in hiring new programmers if needed and training them in accessibility as well if required. I don't think accessibility being a specialized area should be any excuse.
If as sounds possible they are going through and working on accessibility one app at a time we have to ask ourselves how long will it be till they get through there full range of products, and will this range keep growing bigger as services change and evolve.

Just a heads up for sky customers who have several boxes in there house, I had an interesting experience yesterday, I was out and tried to schedule a recording just to check it would work for when I really go away, I found that although we can name our boxes at home when we are out these names are not used by the sky app and you just get asked if you want to make a recording on say a sky + hd box rather than its name.
As a result I set a recording but then found it had gone to the wrong box, what a really useful feature naming is if it doesn't use assigned names when your outside the house so you know your recording to the correct box. I don't even know why it went to the wrong box as recordings to my box work fine over wifi and it was last synced with that box before I left the house and hadn't been synced to the other box in the house for ages.
Sorry for the rant, but this on top of the very long silence from sky has annoyed me to say the least, I wonder if maybe we as UK customers could consider trying to petition mps or someone for legislation on accessibility, as I think that's the only way these broadcasters will take needs seriously for accessibility in the online arena.

Hi Alex in response to your rent even door I would not call it a rant I would call it the truth that sky does not care does not listen asshole as all of the changes that we have put into this forum not one single error has ever been fixed everytime we put up a list of things to be fixed from the old sky plus app not one single thing even though that was the new update last week I think in reading your comments that nothing has been fixed in that so why did they do an update and not fix it I do not know do you I have recently moved today new sky Q and a new sky Q app sucks it sucks big time it does not work very well it does not read any of the channel numbers so it would just say one-to-one one or two followed by the shore which I do not know half of the name of the channels there is lots of errors in the new sky Q app it doesn't work half the time you need to double tap even sometimes click the same icon three times you cannot download any catch up TV from it it is very hard to work around at the moment I do not understand this from coming away from that old sky plus app which you could move around quite easily but they seem to have gone 100% backwards with this they have not updated the The sky Q app yes only one version has come out so far as I can see I know it is only knew but another big feature of that is unlike you I go into my recordings and press play in there to watch it on the TV Radin trying to find it in the TV but you cannot do that on the new sky Q you can only watch it on your iPhone/iPad it becomes at TV streamer not have removed control with the new Sky Q app And again on like the old Skype plus when you were watching a show and went away and turned it off you came back into the TV pressed play on the remote control it printed played where are you would've left off previously but the new Remelle control does not remember any of the last recordings you are watching you have to start from scratch again going to recordings scroll down lots of recorded shows going to the folder and press play every time you turn it off so that is very inconvenience

Hi Michael I believe all of your comments, I am particularly puzzled that you have scene no improvements with sky q given that sky access told us on 7th November that most resources have been focused on sky q. I appreciate they have limited budgets, but seriously they have got a lot of money they are not some small developer who is a one man band, I suspect if accessibility has any priority for them its lowest of the low. I appreciate that changes take time but what have they been doing for almost 6 months, I wouldn't mind so much if sky actually came to us with updates and said this is our timetable this is what we are currently in the process of adding or fixing etc. I think maybe we are a bit of a novelty for them rather than paying customers to be taken seriously. I am not the bill payer in my house but if I was I would jump ship from sky like a shot and look at other options, I don't know how accessible competitors such as virgin are, but I certainly don't feel I should be paying for the privilege of shoddy access with access to hardly any of the functions that sighted people enjoy through the remote, I think we are definitely second class or even third class citizens. As it is I think its a joke me paying £10 for multi room subscription considering the basic functions and poor access I have together.

Disappointingly I can confirm that there doesn't seem to be any change what so ever apart from what I think is one minor change in the planner as it now more easily reads the space available and used when you swipe to the left from a programme in the list. I too really don't understand why they couldn't have implemented the most basic of fixes to at least enable us to swipe up and down the list easily. It used to work before so why not now. Surely fixing the issue while putting out an update to fix other issues would have been the best time. As has already been said, I'm sure the Sky representative posting on here has the best intentions and sincerely means what he says but I'm starting to lose hope.

Is anyone else finding that if you leave the app and go back to it or lock your phone etc, you then get told your not connected to a box. It's not then until you go to planner or go to manually find a box that it then finds the box and you can connect to it. It's getting really annoying so hopefully it will be fixed soon.

Hi Peter, your issue with the sky app losing connection to the box when your phone is locked I think is down to the way Apple manages its wifi.
I think I am right in saying that ios doesn't keep wifi connections alive once the phone is locked, to avoid draining your iPhones battery, I think I am right that it kind of puts it to sleep, as I know of other apps where I have had this issue, for example I would love a media controller for winamp so I can control it from my phone, but they are usually inaccessible and pretty much always go to sleep after locking my phone, which means after an hour of listening to a book I can't pick the phone up and stop the audio without a lot of messing around which by the time I have done it would have been quicker to go to the computer physically.

as to your other comment I think the problem is that sky has very poor leadership from the top in terms of accessibility, though people who want to help on the ground. I rang into sky to ask them about my recording issue I experienced where my recording went to the wrong box, and the woman literally spent about half an hour trying to find a solution in the end she worked out that my box wasn't set to be the primary recording box in the house so I had to change this.
this seems a very poor way of doing things though why you can't be given a list of all available sky boxes to pick from when setting a recording I don't know.
I did tell the woman I spoke to at sky accessibility about applevis and mentioned how someone from her department had been on the site, and she didn't seem to know anything about it, she said she might look us up but as neither she or her colleague has commented I doubt it some how.
to be honest though I think skys knowledge of VoiceOver is poor to say the least, I started telling the woman I was speaking to about it, and she started going on about the sky q and how it would have a quotes VoiceOver app on its remote. so I asked what she meant I then found out she was saying it was going to have a voice activated remote, which with the best will in the world will probably only provide very limited functions, but she seemed so excited when she was saying, things like oh it will let you change channels so hopefully will be of use to someone like you.
Unfortunately with the best will in the world I think the person we had hear from sky probably wasn't a decision maker and possibly someone who joined applevis on his own initiative rather than as part of skys strategy to improve accessibility, after all look how there has been no response from them what so ever. though if he did join off his own initiative he should certainly be commended for it, its his managers who really need a good talking to about there seemingly non existent interest in accessibility.
one thing the person I spoke to at sky said though was that sky q is there latest box, so I wonder if reading between the lines they don't consider the sky plus app and older non sky q boxes a priority, though on the other hand if there have been no improvements to the sky q app either maybe we should just say they don't care about accessibility in any of there products.

Hi all and once again thanks for the comments. I absolutely understand your frustration. Firstly to answer one point, the agent you spoke to may not have been aware of our activity here as I am not a member of the Accessibility department directly, or a developer, I am a member of our Change & Improvements team. I assure you that I am not simply here of my own accord, though the accessibility issue is close to my heart.
Large company as we are, our developer resources are limited and always in demand. The Sky+ and Sky Go apps have received quite limited development in recent months, and as you know the accessibility challenges have not yet been addressed. Maintaining accessibility, and not just getting it in the initial release is certainly an important learning area for us. I will try to get more info on these apps.
The Sky Q apps, unlike some of our legacy apps, have been designed with accessibility in mind from the ground up, and though there are a few tweaks needed particularly on the iPhone version, the apps are in a good place from an accessibility perspective I believe. Sky Q is still a young and evolving platform, and so functionality is more limited in some areas. I have raised the issue of this having a disproportionate effect on visually impaired users in terms of the planner functionality. The team are currently focused on other elements of the project, but I will push for a clearer roadmap in the new year.
We will shortly be releasing a VoiceOver User Guide for the iPad version of the Sky Q app.
Other apps such as Sky Sports and Sky Kids are being worked on in the background.
I am not alone at the company in advocating for accessibility and more and more people who matter to us are understanding the message. We have engaged with the RNIB on a regular basis and have been training developers in accessibility. It is something we are taking seriously, even if change is not as quick as you would like.
Where we have visibility of roadmaps and I am permitted to share the information in a public forum, I will do so.
We have also had discussions about whether we could bring external app trialists on board and how this might work, and will post here if we are going to implement anything in that space.

Hi, thanks for the considered and detailed response,
I do know that change takes time, and that improving things like planner access and generally being able to control program playback takes time, I guess I was hoping to see some incremental changes as presumably your not going to roll out fixes for everything in one fell swoop.
I guess I am puzzled in that the sky remote is covered in loads of buttons, and yet we as blind users have access to a very small set of features, and as discussed on this page previously access to only very basic features that our sighted counterparts have access to far more.
It makes me wonder why the remote has so many buttons.

Is the sky go app being worked on at all as I found accessibility there quite poor, though for me personally I am most interested in the sky plus app, but do appreciate newer platforms probably get more resources.
I am sure you will share what information you can, hopefully we won't be in this situation in another 6 months where sky roles out a new version with no improvements.

Hi and hopefully Sky will be reading this. I'm using the public beta of iOS 10.3 and since the second public beta, the planner list has become completely invisible to VoiceoverrIf you rely on this app to play your sky plus contents do not update to iOS 10.3 until this has been fixed. The same version of the sky plus app is still working on my iPad which is running the first public beta of 10.3. I appreciate something has obviously changed with iOS rather than the sky plus app but I'd hope that Sky will fix this as soon as possible. v it's disappointing to see that despite all the discussions on here, no changes have still been made to the app to improve accessibility. I have sent an email direct to Sky as well and you may wish to do the same.

Hi Peter. Thanks for the info, I will pass it on to the devs. I would though caution that it is not unusual for any apps to experience glitches or bugs when running on beta versions of an OS. Users should always be aware that they risk experiencing issues if they choose to run beta software. Thanks again, and hopefully this issue will be resolved by time of release, wherever the issue lies.

I notice no mention has been made of any accessibility improvements in the pipeline, how disappointing after all we don't just want to be babied with improved planner access but to have control over other box functions though planner improvements would be a good start to management, access etc. Still, its nice to see sky responded promptly to the recent comments. Not sure why sky insists on having so many apps, like my sky, sky + etc, I would think some of there offerings could be merged and rolled into one app, would probably save costs and mean developers could be more focused. also I think some functions currently in my sky really should be ported over to the sky + app for example the ability to set which box your recordings go to which must be done through my sky at present, which I find annoying as I have one app taking up space just to control one function, I know my sky has account and billing stuff in it as well but the only thing I need it for is to manage what boxes recordings go to, apart from that big waste of space on my phone.

Is anyone else unable to access the list of programs within the planner section on the app while using iOS 10.3? This has been a problem since the second public beta of iOS 10.3 and I did make sky aware but they just told me that they do not support veta software which I did already know but hope that they use the time to be able to fix the problem. It's now been quite a number of months since sky first came on this forum and yet still no changes at all and if anything the apps have taken a step backwards when it comes to accessibility.

Hi, I can confirm that the planner is now totally VoiceOver inaccessible in ios 10.3 I am unable to access any of the stored recordings using VoiceOver. thank god tv planner remote still works, but of course this app can't be used to resolve clashes when several recordings conflict, and as this app is hardly ever updated we don't know how long planner remote will continue to work for.
this is utterly unacceptable from sky, I actually genuinely don't know why sky access are on hear considering the total lack of progress on any of our issues or suggestions for improvements there participation is of course welcome, but seriously think they mostly just talk bullshit and are not interested in sorting problems out, this is especially unacceptable as you tried to draw it to there attention during the ios beta phase, so now sky is basically utterly useless with VoiceOver, and I would suggest based on current form they will probably take years to fix it if bother at all.
sky has never been that reliable to begin with, often the planner would become inaccessible especially if you don't have lots of recordings stored, but now nothing works not refreshing the planner nothing. at the very least an emergency update would be appreciated to restore the pretty crappy accessibility we had to begin with though the former accessibility was pretty dreadful anyway.

Thanks both. A ticket has been raised with the development team about this issue. We will update you with more info as soon as possible. Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

I received a call and an email from Laura at Sky yesterday asking for more information. If anyone else is having this issue please email apps@bskyb.com. On a slightly positive note regarding Sky Go, I can confirm that the update which came out yesterday now seems a lot more accessible. However, I don't know whether it is something I'm doing wrong but I don't think that I'm seeing all of the programs as for example, if I go to the catch up section, I'm only seeing one program and cannot figure out how to get to the rest of the list. I'm probably missing something really stupid so any help appreciated. But thankfully it looks like the episode details are now displaying correctly.

Hi all,

I can confirm I am having the planner issue. It is invisible to Voiceover and given that this has been a known issue since at least 1st March when Peter pointed it out, it is very disappointing that it made its way into the public release.

I also want to say a thing or two about the comments on general accessibility: I appreciate skyAccess have responded in detail already, and it was a fair response in reply to the concerns raised by Alex and with every one of which I agree. However, I do think it is reasonable for us to expect that accessibility will not go backwards. To put it another way, even if new features are not introduced, one would hope and expect to still have the old features working. that this is not the case is extremely worrying and whichever way one looks at this it does call into question the attention sky pays to app accessibility. I completely accept the sincerity of SkyAccess in sharing our frustration and making representations, but especially at a time when Sky's future corporate makeup is being examined and consulted upon by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport one really has to question whether this is enough. Change takes time, but to be candid if we were always to settle for such reasoning then we would still be where we were in the 1970s, waiting four weeks to have a telephone installed at home.

For those of you struggling with the planner at the moment, Alex is right: the TV Planner remote app is very good.

Hi all, well what a surprise not, sky just put out an update to the my sky app today but nothing at all for the sky plus app, seriously, sky has some funny priorities updating basically an account administration tool over the actual sky plus app, I think we can safely say that sky plus users are at the bottom of skys priority list, and that us as blind users probably don't feature on it at all, I think sky believes that we have the tv planner remote app which works, so therefor they don't need to invest money in fixing accessibility or improving the sky plus app itself when a third party developer has done the basic work for them. I can honestly say I would never recommend sky to anyone, hopefully the digital economy bill might force sky to act as there is certainly provision in there for audio description so it might be that at the same time they will do something about accessibility, assuming they don't ignore that part of the digital economy bill all together.
after the general election I intend to write to any ministers I can think of who might have an interest in this, as I just don't think sky are going to do anything to even restore basic planner accessibility let alone improve with new features, to be honest I think they have abandoned the sky plus app completely and just don't want to admit it. Of course its almost certain I won't get any response but it can't hurt to pile on the pressure as sky is just taking the piss loads of platitudes and stuff but nothing concrete what so ever.

Hi. I've just spoken with Andy at New Media which is the department of sky that manages the apps. They have told me they have had 20 people so far report the issue with the planner and search results not reading but they say they are aware of many more that have been on forums but have not raised the issue with them. This is a numbers game and Sky have said that basically the more people report it the higher the priority it will get. Please please call Sky and report it on the usual number. Mentioning the issue on here, no matter what our friend from sky says, will not get the issue escalated.

Andy at Sky has said that for anyone who reports an issue, they should without exception be receiving monthly updates. I reported several issues last year and for whatever reasons he advised me the issues have been closed. He has agreed to investigate the problem but I would recommend even those who have reported it more than a month ago, to call sky again.

Hi all, I will be posting this comment in the tv planner remote plus app entry as well as this sky entry, I am concerned about what is going to happen when ios 11 comes out, at the moment we all know that the planner through the sky plus app is totally inaccessible, broken by an ios update and sky are two lazy to actually fix this issue despite several people telling sky about the issue.
Now, I don't know how many of you know this, but apple is dropping support for 32bit apps with the release of ios 11, what this means is that 32bit apps won't run under ios11, now I believe that the tv planner remote plus app is 32 bit given that it was released a few years ago and has received no updates from the developer, in fact we are probably lucky that apple hasn't deleted it yet.
I have tried to reach out to brian illand on twitter for an up to date email address so I can ask him about this and explain the situation we find ourselves in due to skys total disregard for our needs, we are totally reliant on one app for continued access to our boxes which will be obsolete as of ios11 if it is 32 bit as I suspect.
Of course it would be nice if we could see new features added to it, and I would gladly pay for a new version to allow continued development. But at the very least it is essential if this app is 32 bit that it is updated to 64bit to ensure we can continue to use it, if not then we run the serious risk of being unable to access recordings from our sky boxes without sighted help. Of course the ideal would be that sky actually bother to fix the issue, I mean how many people do they need to complain to them about accessibility issues if as commenters above have said 20 people raised the issue already. I think the reality is that this app has been dropped because sky wants to force everyone on to there nice shiny new sky q boxes, notice how sky have gone very quiet on applevis.

Well Well More Than a Month Has Passed Since I Spoke to Andy at Sky And I Have Not Received The Monthly Update insisted I Should be Receiving. I Will Get on The Phone to Them Today And I Would Ask Everybody Who is Affected to do The Same. If I Don’t Get a Satisfactory Response This Time, I’d be Happy to Combine Forces With others And Consider More Extreme Action Such as Getting Legal Advice. I’m reluctant to do That as I Always Think It’s Good to Try And Keep People onside And Have Them Want to Support us And resolve any issues willingly without any pressure but this approach seems to be failing with sky.

Hi Peter, so what response if any did you get from sky? I would say its critical this issue is resolved as soon its a case of gambling our accessibility through tv planner remote or choosing to not upgrade to ios 11 or a new device in my case which either way is bad as we will have to leave ourselves running outdated and potentially vulnerable software. I did try contacting sky, take it you spoke to there accessibility line? they are a joke full of well meaning people who basically have no influence what so ever. Its frustrating as I am not the main bill payer in my house or I would have ditched sky long ago but he is unlikely to want to change providers just to help me get better access, as I would have left them when this issue first came up if it was purely down to me, so I am really stuck.

Hi all. We're very sorry that this issue is as yet unresolved. We have had to get resources re-assigned to deal with it and the team are working on it, but as yet it is not fixed so there has been no app update submitted. As soon as I have more news I'll let you know. I can only apologise, I don't in any way underestimate the importance of the issue.
Regarding the future, while of course Sky are promoting our next generation Sky Q system, we still have many millions of customers on Sky+ and are still fully committed to the platform and in fact still adding new features to it. So it will absolutely continue to be supported.

Good to know your still hear, though I will only start to believe in skys commitment to accessibility once we see real changes, I mean where has all the enthusiasm and interest gone, and lets face it the planner issue has been present now for at least a year. In that time we have only really scene updates to the my sky app.
its also worrying the planner issue wasn't addressed when ios was still in beta stage. To be honest at the moment I wouldn't recommend any of skys products to totally blind customers, I was talking to someone who has had to switch to sky q because of being unable to get virgin in his new house, and he says the accessibility experience is worse if anything than on the actual sky + platform particularly with starting playback and other issues.
what I find worrying is that if and its a big if sky bothers to fix this planner issue accessibility could easily be broken again easily and I highly doubt we are going to see any new features to make managing recordings or other things easier any time soon, I mean does sky even have an accessibility strategy not just polished words giving lip service to it.
the fact is sky has demonstrated its lack of commitment to accessibility so far by basically no updates in over a year despite our feedback, and allowing a major accessibility issue to go unfixed for over a year relying on the fact that we have access to a limited third party app as an excuse for not fixing the problem a problem which they were informed of during ios development.
plus you have only now stated resources have been reallocated to fixing the problem, part of me wonders if this is even the case, but it goes to show that resources have only now been reallocated that blind users are simply not considered a priority compared to sighted customers. either that or accessibility isn't understood or appreciated as being important as part of the corporate culture at sky, either way I think that puts us below the status of third class citizens and shows that sky holds its blind customers in contempt.

though if of course efforts are finally now underway to fix the planner at least this is commendable, but sky really needs to focus in on streamlining its apps so it has fewer apps to maintain and while I appreciate sky access stating resources have been reallocated I actually doubt this till I see some evidence like an app update we have had two many empty words from sky in the past, not your fault sky access but your managers higher up the chain.

I don't think tv planner remote is being developed any more, I mean the developer has put out no updates since initial release and it does have a few minor accessibility issues.

lets face it though if this was say an issue affecting any other minority sky would jump on it straight away, I mean can you imagine the outcry if say hard of hearing people no longer had subtitles? what really angers me is that sky monitor this page from time to time, they no the issue is basically really impacting customers, but because we are such a tiny minority they think its OK to basically put all development into sky q and other sky apps, which I think they need to have far less of anyway.

Hi all,
As others have said, TV planner while being a good alternative, looks like its a no go for iOS 11 given the silence from the dev. On another note I contacted sky about their sky plus app last week. I am paraphrasing, but the agent said they would pass it on. This response indicates what has already been mentioned. Contact sky directly to register the issues you have. It can then go through the proper channels. Hope it improves soon, iOS 11 is coming. ☺️
Mike

I have done that though several times and each time sky seems to listen but nothing changes, I mean look at the silence from sky access about progress on fixing the issue, with the length of time they now seem to be taking to fix the issue and post an update you would think we had asked sky for the answer to life the universe and everything.
On a slightly brighter note, I read an article that said how to check if you had incompatible apps that were 32bit, apparently if you have 32bit apps on your phone you should see some kind of button under about to show 32bit apps. I don't see this on my phone, which might mean tv planner remote will continue to work under ios 11, however its still utterly unacceptable that sky is relying on us being able to use a third party app which could disappear from the appstore at the drop of a hat or stop working with ios 11. the fact is sky really doesn't care about us as customers I mean all that positive engagement with us at the start and now they can barely be bothered with us. I wouldn't be surprised at all if its a lie to shut us up that resources have been reallocated, and this is just about an existing problem, really doubt we will see any new features to make accessibility easier let alone a fix for the actual planner issue.

Hi all, well I must say this is amazing to report I didn't think we would see a fix for this any time soon, but the planner issue is actually fixed, now we can flick through items in the planner properly using swipe gestures we don't have to drag our finger over the screen any more like in the old days standard flicks work and it seems full access to it has been restored. well done sky and sky access for finally sorting this out, though its taken over a year, still its nice to know we don't have to rely on tv planner remote now, even so I will be keeping it on my phone as it is certainly easier for channel navigation.
I haven't spotted any other accessibility improvements or features in this update to help with stuff like bulk deleting of shows, but fixingthe planner is a good start, but would be nice to know is this just a one off fix or are future improvements to the app planned that will use some or all of our feedback? I am very pleased the planner is fixed at last, as deleting stuff through tv planner remote and playing back was frustrating.

alex¬anks for spotting this fix will try it tonight. i, too, would like bulk delete. can sky rep please confirm they are working on this?

I don’t have an update available. This is for the sky plus app isn’t it? I’ve just tried it and the problem persists for me

Thanks for your comment Alex. I logged in to post the good news but you beat me to it! I knew it was coming but was waiting for it to go live in the App Store.
Yes it took longer than any of us would ideally like, but we are delighted that the team have been able to get it fixed, as it is such a critical feature.
Thanks again for all of your feedback, and yes absolutely, there are more accessibility related updates in the works, so watch this space.
We are also continuing to work with the RNIB on all of this. Our goal is ultimately for all of our products to become and remain fully accessible to all customers.

Hi Peter. Sometimes app updates take a few hours to roll out to all users. Check back and refresh your Updates tab over the next few hours and you should receive an update. The app version number is 5.5.1

Hi, I have just begun to use the new sky app to clear out loads of junk from my tv planner, just a heads up I have spotted a few minor issues on the planner screen itself,these are as follows
1. to the left of the home button there is a button which is unlabeled,
2. the home button is read twice, so you have the home button, then flicking to the right another home button.
3. there is another unlabeled button to the right of the search button which is just read as button button.
Button labeling is something your developers should be able to easily get right, especially if they run your app through apples accessibility inspector it should be able to highlight basic issues such as these, I know they are minor but even so how come they weren't spotted in testing? this is why I think you need blind people on board for testing new versions.

First I want to thank the sky access team for fixing the planner. While I can confirm the same issues re buttons which Alex mentioned, it is a big step forward to have access to this crucial function of the app again.
Many thanks.
Mike

Thanks for that info about remaining minor issues on the Planner screen. I have passed that information on and you should see further improvements in future updates.
The developers were keen to get this critical fix released straight away when it was ready.
Many thanks.

hello,firstly, thank you for this update to the planner. the recommendations i have will i feel, make it easier to bulk delete items. could the voiceover actions rotor be used, so that when we are on an episode in say, a 3 episode set, to mark the item or delete it in general? so that, we can flick through multiple episodes of a show and flick up and down to mark, or delete? that way when all are marked a delete button could then be present. having to go in to each individual episode of say a 5 or more plus set is so sedious, although it is great access.

Hi Will. Thanks for the suggestions, that would indeed be very useful. Not being a developer myself I won't speak to the feasibility of it within the custom frameworks of the app, but will certainly reiterate the idea to the team and promote it if it's possible.

I think that suggestion was made ages ago when we were all giving feedback anyway, we don't want to rehash the same suggestions over again, but yes I agree actions menu would be seriously useful as you could have a hole set of options like on a program itself with multiple episodes a bulk delete option, and for individual episodes actions such as delete, play mark to keep etc. But I am sure all these were given as feedback some time ago. along with things like table index navigation etc.
One thing I think would be really helpful is if I am out somewhere it would be nice if the app could say which sky box a program is going to be recorded to if I am say setting a recording from abroad.
at the moment if I am on my home wifi network it will say record program to alex for example as that is what I have named my box, but if I am out or off wifi it just says record program to sky box without a name, if it could also show the box name when off wifi that would be reassuring to know that I am sending a record request to the right box in my house.

Hi Alex. Yes indeed, that suggestion has been made and noted previously, but I still wanted to acknowledge it, and to take it forward again.
I'll ask about your other suggestion too, there may be a technical reason for the current behaviour, I will try to find out. Many thanks.

Hi all, wondering is anyone else getting sky almost every launch asking for a review? I am getting tired of this aggressive request for a review on almost every launch. Is anyone else experiencing this?
what makes this more egregious is that I have disabled the option for in app ratings and reviews under my iTunes and appstore settings which as I understand it should disable all requests from apps that have been updated to use apples approved review request feature. In fact as I understand it not using apples approved method that respects this setting is against apples developer guidelines.
can you advise sky access, is it the case that the sky plus app hasn't been updated to properly respect this setting? and if so, why not given that apple insists that developers should respect this setting.
as I say I am getting annoyed with this constant box saying how did we do and asking for a review, I could be tempted to leave a review just to shut it up, but I don't see why I should have to, and its not like sky is a tiny developer that needs the support that a review gives.

Hi. Perhaps I should set this up as another topic but I’m just interested in an update from the blind uses of Sky Q to see how it’s going? I have Sky Q arriving on Friday and would be interested to know how well the voice control, iPad app and other features are working.

Hi all. For those considering Sky Q, I am posting to the Sky Q app specific forum on here re many issues so please check out there. Needless to say, if you live alone and have no ability to see text then I really would not upgrade.

Hi. As the subject suggests. If anyone has any issues with me using their input on this forum in either my formal complaint to Sky or in any action which may follow, please post here and I will do my best to remove your comments and/or username. Thanks to those who have shown support by contacting me directly at peterholdstock@msn.com. Peter

Hi. To see an update on Sky's response to my action against them re sky accessibility please see the forum "Has anybody in the UK tried the new Sky Q app?"

Hi all. Apologies for the slow updates but this is a lengthy process which is not yet over. I'm going to copy a letter I've received from Sky's legal team but needless to say, I have a lot of questions. Please do not all start calling Sky customer services to ask for a refund of sky multiroom charges as I'm trying to clarify if and how sky intend to make blind customers aware of this etc. Please be aware in my grievance I haven't just focused on Sky Q as I too have been there for all of the other issues relating to other Sky services including Sky+. See letter below and more to follow soon. This is now being escalated to CISAS who have 20 day to consider my grievance and their decision and any recommendations that come from it are legally binding and Sky have said they will abide by them. I do not have to accept the decision of CISAS and can progress this to court if I feel it's. Disappointingly only one person off here offered any kind of input or help but I'm guessing those affected will be wanting their refunds.
Dear Mr. Holdstock
Reply to formal complaint of alleged indirect discrimination and failure to make a reasonable adjustment
We refer to letter of 27th May 2018 and further to your recent discussions with our Customer Priority Department. While we have taken full note and careful consideration of your comments, we do not intend in this letter to reply directly to all of your allegations against Sky, and its alleged failure to comply with its legal obligations to you. We understand that your core concern is to be involved with Sky’s continued development of features and services (in particular relating to Sky Q) to improve the quality of service Sky offers to its blind and partially sighted customers.
While we deny any discrimination in the Sky Q services we make available to blind people or any breaches of relevant Ofcom requirements, we acknowledge that there are opportunities to make certain aspects of our services even better and we are committed to doing so. In particular, we are making certain functionality of the Sky Q Multiscreen subscription available without additional charge for our blind customers, so that they may properly navigate a list of their Sky+ recordings via the Sky Q app. In addition, we will be providing greater awareness to our customers of the Voice Search and Voice Control button on the Sky Q remote control. By pressing down this button (which is on the top right of the remote control) customers can ask to be taken to specific programmes and/or Sky+ recordings they have made. While this is not a complete solution to the text to speak issue you identify, it does provide a mechanism to play content on the main screen, while we develop a comprehensive and fully integrated approach to meeting this challenge.
In addition to the measures set out above, we would like to invite you (at our expense) to visit our offices to give you the opportunity to meet the product teams to discuss your experience with them and share your insight on high quality, customer-focused, high tech solutions for our visually impaired customers.
We would also like to offer you a full refund of amounts paid by you to date for your Sky Q Multiscreen subscription.
Yours sincerely,
Rafat Rasul
Paralegal, TMT & Litigation