Writing

A video player is the heart of any TV experience. It’s where content, business goals, and human needs collide—and where accessibility failures are most visible. Unlike mobile or web, TV video players must work across remotes, ten-foot viewing distances, assistive technologies, and wildly different hardware capabilities. When a video player isn’t accessible on TV, users don’t just have a “slightly worse” experience—they often can’t watch at all.

The user experience for TV aligns more with billboard design than with app design, and cannot be treated as a simple enlargement of mobile interfaces. The challenges of viewing distance, screen variability, lighting conditions, and non-touch interaction all collide—and small typography and low contrast are usually the first things to break. It’s a reminder—especially on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities—that accessibility isn’t a side note, but central to res

We often borrow mental models from mobile when designing for TV because people’s behavior and expectations are becoming similar across devices. However, this can be problematic. Touch interactions, like tapping, are intuitive on mobile but not suitable for TV, where users typically rely on remote controls or voice commands. Similarly, simply adding labels and roles for accessibility, as done on mobile, may not enhance the TV viewing experience, which is more passive.

Most TV app teams think they’ve solved navigation once they support ↑ ↓ ← → + OK. When you build for connected TVs, “keyboard-only” isn’t just an accessibility edge case — it’s the default interaction model.

Logging in should be simple — but on TV, it’s often where accessibility breaks down. Between on-screen keyboards, pairing codes, and multi-step authentication, it’s easy for users with disabilities to hit a wall before they even reach your content.