Spectrum Access: Enabled Media

Category

Description of App

Welcome to Spectrum Access, formerly known as Actiview. Enjoy free audio descriptions and closed captioning for the movies and TV shows you love. Download your preferred assistive track, choosing from over 300 titles. Sync your tracks to the TV with your device's microphone. Sit back and enjoy an inclusive entertainment experience.

Your feedback is essential. If you have a suggestion to enhance your Spectrum Access experience, please contact us at spectrumaccess@charter.com to let us know.

Version

1.1

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

No

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

13.41

Accessibility Comments

This app was built specifically for people with disabilities and was tested with Voice Over.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Other Comments

This app is free to anyone in the United States. Currently there are over three hundred titles available. I recommend reading the Getting Started, which you can find under Settings or on any of the movie detail pages, to learn how to get the app to sync and play the audio description tracks. It is important to know that you need to have the movie playing on another device, such as a TV, laptop or anything with speakers, so this app can listen to and sync itself.

Developer's Twitter Username

@SpectrumA11y

Recommendations

3 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Casey 4 years 6 months ago

Options

Comments

By Zoe Victoria on Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 13:35

This app sounds really cool, I don’t really watch TV much though so I’m not sure if I’ll ever check it out. nevertheless this seems really promising.

By brandon armstrong on Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 13:35

I have a couple of concerns, are we going to get updated content, and are we also going to get content for movies in theaters?

By Stacy on Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 13:35

Any idea if/when this wonderful app might be available in Canada? Active view was great… Hoping spectrum access will be available to us in Canada.

By Just Another B… on Thursday, May 21, 2020 - 13:35

In reply to by brandon armstrong

There are a lot of moving parts to consider. The company that produces and distributes the films will ultimately decide if the theatrical release will have audio description. Secondly, the theater must have auditoriums that support the hardware including receivers for movie patrons. Fortunately, most of the big national chains have installed this equipment and the "Hollywood" studios that produce the content are adding AD to many, many releases.

If a particular movie has AD but the theater does not support it, theoretically, this app would be helpful if it has the particular audio description.

Finally, I would imagine that the people behind this app are going to have to secure the rights to distribute the audio description. If the industry makes that difficult, there will not be a lot of new content.

One good thing is that many of the films that are listed on the web site for the app were not originally released in theaters with AD or the theaters were not equipped with the hardware so this may be the first time we can enjoy them with AD.

By PaulMartz on Saturday, August 21, 2021 - 13:35

This looks like an interesting app. Is an index of content available online?