Hi-Light of selected item in Emby player

[gddeluca 2]

My wife is visually impaired (Macular degeneration) but still enjoys watching TV.

The Emby player highlights the selected menu entry by making it slightly larger than the other displayed thumbnails.

For her, this is basically useless, it just does not 'stand out'.

Could an option (or default) be created to add a 'blinking' frame around the selected item? (Actually even a non-blinking bold frame would help) This would be invaluable for visually handicapped users.  Actually, I'm not visually handicapped myself, but would appreciate this as well.

Manoevering around the menu is difficult for the impaired, a change like this would enhance the TV experience for thousands of Emby users.

 

[GrimReaper 4740]

Which client app? 

[gddeluca 2]

We're using Emby on the Firestick 4K.

[GrimReaper 4740]

And are you using native FireTV app or sideloaded standard Android app? 

[gddeluca 2]

Pretty sure it's whatever the Amazon store provided.

[GrimReaper 4740]

Then you should have an option to "Show highlighted rectangle around selected item" in app settings>General Display tab. 

[gddeluca 2]

Yes, we have that. But for visually handicapped people, that really doesn't help much. It's a border around a slightly bigger thumbnail. If the larger thumbnail doesn't catch their eye, the extra border makes 'zip' difference.  I know it's hard for normal people like you and I to appreciate just how difficult things are for the handicapped. I'm just trying to suggest something that would make innumerable peoples lives better.

Blinking, or flashing, or any 'activity' is what's preferable.  Static visual enhancements just don't help.

I'm a software developer, I know this is probably not a trivial request, given the probable display support available, but think of it as a challenge.

[GrimReaper 4740]

Sorry, was just going with:

52 minutes ago, gddeluca said:

Actually even a non-blinking bold frame would help

Thought you skipped the option. Maybe bolder than it already is would be more appropriate? 

[ebr 16184]

Hi.  Have you tried using the neutral highlight color instead of the theme-specific one?

How do you cope with other systems such as Netflix?  Are there techniques they use that are better?

[gddeluca 2]

Hi, we experimented with themes and chose Black because of its high contrast. The boss indicated very marginal improvement. From her comments it's obvious she wants an animated (blinking, whatever ...) to catch her eye.

Her vision is quite poor. For example she loves Crypto puzzles, I reprocess them for her and to be able to read them I have to print

THEM IN BIG BOLD LETTERS

and even then she needs 6X glasses. It's pretty tough for her, that's why I chase other possibilities.

We don't have Netflix, just Prime, our live TV and whatever stuff I can download and stream with Emby.

Not surprisingly, none of the others provide any help for the visually impaired either.

 

George

 

[rbjtech 5284]

Have you looked at the Accessibility Features in the Amazon Fire TV stick itself ? (in Settings)

There are a number of features such as Screen Magnifiers etc which may make things a little easier for you ?

As you have a FireTV 4K - I'm pretty sure that can have 'profiles' that would only apply for that user.

Once magnifier is turned on - then the use of the 3 line button (hamburger button) held down + the FF or RWD buttons on the FireTV Remote does an instant zoom in/out for example.

Edited March 14, 2023 by rbjtech

[gddeluca 2]

Explored them in the past when we got the Firestick, but not recently. Will have to re-visit them.

As far as using the Firestick remote - would you believe my wife is still using our Harmony remote because she's familiar with all the needed button locations and refuses to 'learn' a new remote. (I have a special adaptor that lets you use an IR remote with the Firestick)

With poor vision, a lot of stuff becomes memory dependent since the labels and icons on buttons (let alone the TV screen) become useless. That's where the Harmony shines, I can create macros.  Like Emby is Home, Right, Right, Right, Enter. -- Only one key for her.

I just do whatever is possible to keep her going.

Thanks for all your comments, I'll explore them all again.

George