sling television accessibility

By Sarah, 22 February, 2015

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Good afternoon. is the app sling television accessible on the iPhone or Mac? Thank you.

Options

Comments

By Blind Joe on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 23:17

sling is not accessible at all as far as I can tell on iPhone or Mac. Sorry to be the bringer of bad news. :(

By Imani on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 23:17

I have tried sling TV. All I could do was watch ESPN. I have called the Tech department and they are willing to ork on the accessibility VO. If more people call then they might move quicker. Sling is a really good idea.

By Santiago on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - 23:17

I can confirm the accessibility issues on both iOS and OS X. I just canceled my 7 day free trial, so I'm willing to give it another try once someone finds out its accessible when ever they update their apps. It still sounds like a great idea though. Hopefully its usable soon.

By Kim Loftis on Sunday, May 24, 2015 - 23:17

I know there have been a couple of updates to Sling; does anyone know whether there has been any progress with Voiceover accessibility? My trial expired back in February when I tried the app out initially.

Many thanks for any info.

By laurawhite on Sunday, May 24, 2015 - 23:17

Well, I have tried to access sling to my iPhone but it's not compatible. I like to have it there but I think we need to wait for it to work.

By Darrell Bowles on Thursday, September 24, 2015 - 23:17

No go, at all. Can't get it to work. GOIng to call and cancel my trial tomorrow.

By Liz on Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 23:17

I can search and make the menus appear. However, I'm having trouble navigating channels.
Has anyone informed the company about the accessibility issues?

Liz

By Toonhead on Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 23:17

Hi. They probably don't even know that a blind person can use an iPhone, let alone has interest in watchint tv. This is why writing to them will hopefully educate them a little and, hopefully, we can help make it more usable. what I like to do is offer to be a beta tester. I figure if I'm going to ask them to make a fundamental change in their software, the least I can do is help them get it right.

By Liz on Sunday, April 24, 2016 - 23:17

Hi Toonhead,
I emailed their tech support team and sent the m the link to this thread.

Hope it helps,
LIz

By Joe on Friday, June 24, 2016 - 23:17

They have now released an Apple TV app and again I'm afraid it's inaccessible at least from what I've seen. I just will never understand why television companies go out of their way to make things unusable for the blind. It's 2016 there's no excuse anymore.

By Jake on Friday, June 24, 2016 - 23:17

Come on, everyone. I realize you're upset about not being able to access this app, but to imply that cable companies go out of their way to thwart accessibility just sounds like conceited, entitled whining. It's awareness, that's all. Think about it: if they were willing to put that much energy into making it inaccessible, they'd just make it accessible and get more customers. It's ignorance, not malice, which results in this. It's upsetting, but making accusations isn't going to help any of us.

By Froglet on Friday, June 24, 2016 - 23:17

I tweeted them, and they responded saying that they would forward my request for accessibility to their development team. I included a link to this thread.

Jake is right. Accusing someone is certainly not going to make them want to do anything for us. Accessibility requires effort, and though of course they will gain customers in the end if they fix their apps, it really doesn't help our case to come across as entitled and bitter.

As far as I know, there is no other alternative to Sling TV which provides as many channels for the price, so I do hope that we are able to use it at some point!

Take care.

By Aaron on Friday, March 24, 2017 - 23:17

I have figured out that a lot of TV channels now cary an app where you can watch them live. So I have been able to access them each individually and some cary sling as a provider. We can still watch this way. But those that didn't have them, I was quick to contact and ask for that provider to be added. I also sent sling a request to have this feature worked on. Hopefully they get it running. This has a lot of channels for a very very low price it's practically a steal. I think if we all get the individual app for networks we frequent and write to them asking if they can add sling as a provider to sign in through those apps with, then we may be able to get something to work with. I have noticed that a lot of those apps are accessible.

By John Lipsey on Monday, February 24, 2020 - 23:17

It's been a few years since this post was last updated, and a friend and I are looking into Sling TV as an option for live TV without cable at her apartment. I'm hoping, given the time that's passed, there has been some improvement in Sling's accessibility, but I want to be sure before we start putting together her TV package and everything.

By Fred on Monday, February 24, 2020 - 23:17

Try You Tube TV for Streaming TV. Accessible on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV. You get 70 channels for $49.99. There is a 7 day free trial. 70 channels are displayed on their channel listings, others, such as PBS, can be found using search feature. For some more pennies, you can get premium channels. As far as I can tell, You Tube TV does not support DVS. Plenty of access to movies and a user library. I like it.