How to use VoiceOver on your Apple TV

Posted April 5, 201410 yr

If you have an Apple TV but find it difficult or impossible to see and navigate the menu system VoiceOver is there to help. An accessibility option meant to help those with visual challenges, VoiceOver "speaks" the controls to you, letting you hear what you can't see. You can even set up shortcuts to turn VoiceOver on and off with just two taps.

How to enable VoiceOver on a new Apple TV

Plug in your Apple TV
Wait
VoiceOver will automatically turn itself on and ask you if you want to continue with audio prompts.

How to enable VoiceOver on an existing Apple TV

If you've got an Apple TV already set up that doesn't have VoiceOver turned on yet, it'll need to be enabled via the Accessibility menu.

Launch the Settings app from the main menu of your Apple TV.
Click on General.
Scroll all the way down and tap on Accessibility.
Toggle the VoiceOver setting to On.
Continue to the next section to create a shortcut for quickly turning it on and off on the fly.

How to create a shortcut to quickly enable/disable VoiceOver on the Apple TV

Launch the Settings app from the main menu of your Apple TV.
Click on General.
Scroll all the way down and tap on Accessibility.
Turn the Accessibility Menu option On.
Hold down the menu button on your Apple TV remote and hit the Select button to toggle VoiceOver on or off.

I highly suggest enabling the Accessibility Menu option if you have someone in your home that is visually impaired. This way they can quickly enable and disable VoiceOver without relying on anyone else to help them. It's also a great feature to have in case VoiceOver accidentally gets disabled. This same menu also lets you toggle closed captions on and off quickly.

If you've used the VoiceOver feature on the Apple TV, let me know in the comments how it's been working in your household! Are there any features you'd like to see added in a future update? Let me know that too!