Sky Sports

Creating an inclusive experience for visually impaired users through meaningful and functional voice guidance

Team

1 Designer

1 Product Manager

1 Accessibility Consultant

My Role

Accessibility audit

Accessibility script definiton

Industry

Sport

Duration

4 weeks

The brief

The European Accessibility Act (EAA), coming into effect in 2025, will require digital products, including TV apps, to comply with accessibility standards by law.


For the Sky Sports TV app, voice guidance scripts were needed to ensure an accessible experience for users with visual impairments. This technology, similar to VoiceOver (iOS) and TalkBack (Android), provides spoken feedback for on-screen content. The scripts needed to align with accessibility guidelines while being clear, meaningful, and contextually relevant to the nuances of the sports app.

Business consideration

Longer announcements = greater cost

The more voice guidance announces, the higher the cost to the business. While accessibility is a priority, optimising length, order, and phrasing ensures cost-efficient usage. Striking a balance between concise communication and meaningful guidance was key throughout.

Building on foundations

Voice guidance scripting was required across Sky’s core products on Entertainment OS, with existing browse and playback principles in place. However, there were adaptations that needed to be made and new components to consider as part of the sports experience.

Key components to define

Metadata order

The hero section updates dynamically with the synopsis, title, and time, while the focus state contains additional details. The order of announcements needed to be carefully structured to prioritise the most meaningful information first.

Event tiles with scores

Events can be in pre-live, live, or post-event states, each with different score updates. These variations, along with differences between sports, required clear and consistent announcements.

Event centres

This is a unique component for sports, featuring live data, recap clips, and driver cams. Beyond defining its structure, it was crucial to consider how users entered, navigated, and exited the experience, especially from playback.

Documentation conventions

The framework below standardises voice guidance documentation across all TV products, ensuring consistency in structure and terminology. It helps define content hierarchy, aligning with familiar patterns users expect across Sky’s TV ecosystem.

Key design challenges

In what order should metadata be announced when browsing content?

The focus state is on the tile, while key details (competition title, description) appear in the hero area above.

  • How should information be ordered, considering some details are outside the focus state?

  • What’s the most important information for users to hear first?

Decision

Announce the focused item first, starting with head-to-head details and scores, as these are concise and help users quickly understand the context.

In what order should metadata be announced when browsing content?

The focus state is on the tile, while key details (competition title, description) appear in the hero area above.

  • How should information be ordered, considering some details are outside the focus state?

  • What’s the most important information for users to hear first?

Decision

Announce the focused item first, starting with head-to-head details and scores, as these are concise and help users quickly understand the context.

In what order should event information be announced within the tile?

The tiles display metadata like head-to-head details and score, but the correct order of announcement isn’t clear.

  • Should team names be announced first, followed by the score, or should the score be grouped with the team?

Decision

Announce head-to-head information first, followed by the score. This reduces cognitive load, as announcing the score after the head-to-head prevents users from having to recall previously mentioned teams, aligning with Nielsen's usability heuristics.

In what order should event information be announced within the tile?

The tiles display metadata like head-to-head details and score, but the correct order of announcement isn’t clear.

  • Should team names be announced first, followed by the score, or should the score be grouped with the team?

Decision

Announce head-to-head information first, followed by the score. This reduces cognitive load, as announcing the score after the head-to-head prevents users from having to recall previously mentioned teams, aligning with Nielsen's usability heuristics.

How should score announcements adapt for different sports?

Different sports have unique ways of discussing scores—for example, cricket fans wouldn’t say “123-9” as it’s written but would expect a more conversational format.

  • How conversational should scores be to provide clarity without making announcements overly verbose?

Decision

Align announcements with how fans naturally talk about scores. Since voice isn’t limited by screen space, it should maximize clarity and enhance the experience.

Align announcements with how fans naturally talk about scores. Since voice isn’t limited by screen space, it should maximise clarity and enhance the experience.

In what order should Event Centre components be announced on first launch?

On first launch, focus is on the Recap feature in the horizontal stack, while a non-interactive element above displays the score and teams.

  • How should score updates be handled?

  • How does voice guidance interact with live coverage audio?

  • How does this impact the browsing experience when navigating additional features?

Decision

Announce only the focused feature to avoid redundancy. While users won’t hear the score repeated, they receive team details on entry and get score updates naturally through punditry, making additional announcements unnecessary and potentially disruptive.

Considering the semantics

The framework below standardises voice guidance documentation across all TV products, ensuring consistency in structure and terminology. It helps define content hierarchy, aligning with familiar patterns users expect across Sky’s TV ecosystem.

Output

150+ screens

150+ screens

documented for the entire TV app

80+ event tile variations

80+ event tile variations

defined across all available sports

Outcome

All components and screens now have clear, meaningful voice guidance documentation, reviewed and approved by Sky’s accessibility team and a visually impaired consultant to ensure usability.

The work was completed on time, allowing for delivery ahead of the June 2025 deadline, ensuring the Sky Sports TV app meets EAA compliance when regulations take effect.