Amazon is rolling out an accessibility feature for its Fire TV users. Called ‘Text Banner’, this new feature is designed for viewers with a narrow field of vision or eye conditions such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa.
The feature essentially consolidates onscreen text into a compact text banner that appears in a fixed location on the screen. A screenshot (below) shared by Amazon shows the text banner configured to appear in the lower-left corner of the screen, with white text on a blue background, and blue focus indicator.
As per Amazon, the Text Banner feature works on the entire Fire TV interface, Prime Video app, as well as supported third-party apps. To enable this feature, users will need to head over to Settings -> Accessibility -> Text Banner. Here, one will be able to customize the user experience by selecting the banner size, placement, font size, color, duration, and more.
Text Banner is the latest in a host of accessibility features available for Fire TV users. Other options include VoiceView, Closed Captions, Screen Magnifier, and High Contrast Text. As the name suggests, VoiceView speaks on-screen text out loud as you navigate menu options and Settings. Closed Captions are basically subtitles that can be enabled during video playback to display on-screen text for the dialog in movies and TV shows. Lastly, Amazon says that High Contrast Text is an experimental feature designed to make on-screen text easier to read. To help viewers, most of the on-screen text is changed to black or white with added borders in the opposite color.