Samsung’s latest Smart TV range awarded Accreditation by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK

• Samsung’s accessibility features recognised by sight loss charity for the second time

LONDON, UK – 15^th November, 2022 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced that it has been awarded the ‘Tried and Tested’ certification for its 2022 Smart TVs from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

RNIB awards its “Tried and Tested” standard to products, websites, apps or services which meet the charity’s criteria for accessibility for consumers with sight loss. This distinction enables the users to make easier purchase decisions and also underscores Samsung’s pledge to improving accessibility features on its TVs.

Samsung has worked with RNIB for nearly a decade, ensuring its products are suited with the most efficient features to offer accessibility for all consumers. This year’s accreditation is the second time Samsung have been awarded the ‘Tried and Tested’ standard, having first been recognised by the charity in 2020.

Samsung is committed to enhancing accessibility features for users who are blind or partially sighted by offering features including the below:

• Voice Guide – users can listen to key information on programmes as well as instructions for the remote control and accessibility features. Individuals can also adjust the pitch and speed of the Voice Guide to suit their preferences.
• High Contrast – users can change the background colour of the main service screen to black and the text colour to white or yellow to increase visibility and reduce eye strain. Plus, the transparent TV menu screen is automatically changed to opaque to make text more legible.
• Greyscale – This feature allows users to change the colour of the screen to black and white by using grayscale if they have trouble recognising colours or have high eye strain.
• Colour Inversion – users can invert the background to black and the text to white If they are sensitive to light or have poor eyesight. Colour inversion helps to increase visual recognition, reduce glare and reduce eye strain.
• SeeColors – The SeeColors app, available on all Samsung QLED TVs, helps those with a colour vision deficiency to adjust screen colour to suit their eyes.
• Enlarge – this feature magnifies specific fonts related to TV control, volume and menus.

Baekjun Lim, Corporate Vice President, Head of R&D Samsung Research UK comments: “We are hugely proud to have been awarded the ‘Tried and Tested Accreditation’ for the second time by RNIB. Here at Samsung, we are always looking for ways to improve our technology and we remain committed to ensure that our features are accessible for all so that users can watch their favourite shows without difficulty.”

RNIB is the UK’s leading sight loss charity. The charity helps people to understand the needs of individuals with sight loss and supports brands to understand how they can make their technologies more accessible to blind and partially sighted people. The charity undertakes usability assessments to highlight any barriers that is preventing people with disabilities from using the technology.

David Clarke, Chief Operating Officer at RNIB, said: “We’re delighted to have awarded Samsung with our Tried and Tested standard for the second time. Their efforts in ensuring that blind and partially sighted people are kept at the forefront when it comes to accessibility and design make a huge difference to the everyday lives of people living with sight loss.

We look forward to continuing to work with Samsung on future projects.”