2021-01-21 18:07:03 (edited by rings2006 2021-01-22 01:09:45)

How to make Kodi accessible to the blind through the Kodi Screen Reader service
Kodi is, quite possibly, the most well known and widely used media streaming solution out there. You can view all different types of media from video files to image files; you can even play games with it! But there's just one problem. When you first install Kodi on your device, be it your PC, your mobile device or smart TV, there is no screen reader support for the blind/visually impaired. I was very frustrated when I discovered this. However, after some online research, I found the reasoning behind this. Kodi actually has its own built-in screen reader that can be downloaded and installed as a service add-on from within the Kodi program itself. In this guide, I will describe how blind/visually impaired Kodi users like myself can take advantage of the Kodi Screen Reader.
About the screen reader
Kodi Screen Reader is a powerful tool that allows blind/visually impaired users to use the Kodi Media Centre program by speaking aloud items on the screen. It uses the operating system's built-in speech engine, like SAPI in Microsoft Windows, to provide speech output to the user. This, of course, means that you cannot change the voice of Kodi Screen Reader without first changing the default voice in your operating system's text to speech (TTS) speech settings. KSR will announce items such as buttons, dialog boxes and progress bars.
How to enable KSR
This guide assumes you are running Kodi on either the Windows or MacOS operating system. The mobile (Android/iOS) versions sadly don't have KSR. The below procedure is pretty much the same for both Windows and Mac, but there is 1 small difference.
1. Inside Kodi, press Shift + A and press Enter to access the add-ons menu.
2. Press Shift + D and press Enter to access the download menu.
3. Press Shift + S and press Enter to access the services menu.
4. Windows users, arrow down 10 times and press Enter twice. Mac users. try the windows methid or 9 times and press Enter twice. You should hear clicking sounds as you arrow down.
5. Wait a short while for the add-on to download and install itself. Once the installation process is complete, you should hear 2 quick beeps and the speech should start. This means you did everything right and the Kodi Screen Reader service is now activated.
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled the Kodi Screen Reader! Now you can independently stream and download movies and TV shows to your heart's content. The great thing about all this is that you don't have to manually reenable KSR every time you fire up Kodi; it will automatically activate on startup.
This guide was created by Seeling Feeling, from somewhere, and not me

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-21 18:14:43 (edited by TheRealAmethyst 2021-01-21 18:15:31)

this is only for pc, as the screen reader doesn't work on mobile devices. I use Kodi every day, and it's amazing.

My discord: the_real_amethyst
Join my accessible Pokémon discord server

2021-01-21 18:43:42

what addons if any do you use?

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-21 18:59:12

some movie and anime addons, will not go into detail, cause they are piracy addons.

My discord: the_real_amethyst
Join my accessible Pokémon discord server

2021-01-21 19:00:11 (edited by rings2006 2021-01-21 19:03:10)

so your like me. i have discord and skype if you wana talk about them and help me figure out some good addons

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-21 21:14:35

Ok, send me a PM: BlindMaster7756 on discord

My discord: the_real_amethyst
Join my accessible Pokémon discord server

2021-01-21 22:08:05

Does this work on the latest version? I thought it didn't.
Here's a more exact version of this guide, pasted from a txt file I have for some reason:
How to make Kodi accessible to the blind through the Kodi Screen Reader service
Kodi is, quite possibly, the most well known and widely used media streaming solution out there. You can view all different types of media from video files to image files; you can even play games with it! But there's just one problem. When you first install Kodi on your device, be it your PC, your mobile device or smart TV, there is no screen reader support for the blind/visually impaired. I was very frustrated when I discovered this. However, after some online research, I found the reasoning behind this. Kodi actually has its own built-in screen reader that can be downloaded and installed as a service add-on from within the Kodi program itself. In this guide, I will describe how blind/visually impaired Kodi users like myself can take advantage of the Kodi Screen Reader.
About the screen reader
Kodi Screen Reader is a powerful tool that allows blind/visually impaired users to use the Kodi Media Centre program by speaking aloud items on the screen. It uses the operating system's built-in speech engine, like SAPI in Microsoft Windows, to provide speech output to the user. This, of course, means that you cannot change the voice of Kodi Screen Reader without first changing the default voice in your operating system's text to speech (TTS) speech settings. KSR will announce items such as buttons, dialog boxes and progress bars.
How to enable KSR
This guide assumes you are running Kodi on either the Windows or MacOS operating system. The mobile (Android/iOS) versions sadly don't have KSR. The below procedure is pretty much the same for both Windows and Mac, but there is 1 small difference.
1. Inside Kodi, press Shift + A and press Enter to access the add-ons menu.
2. Press Shift + D and press Enter to access the download menu.
3. Press Shift + S and press Enter to access the services menu.
4. Windows users, arrow down 9 times and press Enter twice. Mac users, arrow down 8 times and press Enter twice. You should hear clicking sounds as you arrow down.
5. Wait a short while for the add-on to download and install itself. Once the installation process is complete, you should hear 2 quick beeps and the speech should start. This means you did everything right and the Kodi Screen Reader service is now activated.
Congratulations! You have successfully enabled the Kodi Screen Reader! Now you can independently stream and download movies and TV shows to your heart's content. The great thing about all this is that you don't have to manually reenable KSR every time you fire up Kodi; it will automatically activate on startup.

This guide was created by Seeling Feeling.

"Snake, don't worry about it. There's more to being a good person than just having a stereo television."

2021-01-21 22:13:22 (edited by rings2006 2021-01-21 22:15:18)

do you mind if i replace mine with that guide? also where do i past the 4 diget number

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-21 22:48:57

just paste everything as it is, the numbers and everything.

My discord: the_real_amethyst
Join my accessible Pokémon discord server

2021-01-21 22:52:54

Na I don't care. It was  on a social platform once and probably the person wouldn't mind, hopefully.

"Snake, don't worry about it. There's more to being a good person than just having a stereo television."

2021-01-21 23:25:49

it says this when i try We need BlindMaster7756's four digit tag so we know which one they are.

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-21 23:45:16 (edited by Minionslayer 2021-01-21 23:46:24)

@rings2006, The format is always [Username]#[UserID]
So in this case: BlindMaster#7756
I'll be honest, I don't really get the appeal of Kodi, but I did try this to much frustration a couple years ago, so maybe I'll try it out on the weekend at some point, and I'm glad that either way, someone can get use out of this thing.

If you for whatever reason wish to contact me, the best way to do so is through Discord (Minionslayer#2980). You'll get the quickest response times, and by extension, a higher priority. I also sometimes post my thoughts (for the better or worse) over on Twitter at @Minionslayer2.

2021-01-21 23:53:04

gamulation. i sent a friend request. you will know who i am

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-22 01:06:29

Hi.


I can't get this screen reader to work at all.


I follow the guide but when I press enter twice and wait, I hear nothing.


I even tried installing the kodi screen reader exe file but that did nothing either.


So to recap, I pressed shift a, enter, shift d enter, shift s enter, arrowed down 8 times and pressed enter twice, is this guide up to date?

I'm gone for real :)

2021-01-22 01:08:15

it should say 10. let me change that

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-22 01:29:54

Hi.


I tried pressing down 10 times and pressing enter twice, I waited a bit and did hear a chime then one beep.


There's no speech and I'm running windows.


I tried installing the kodi screen reader from the exe file too with no luck.


Even pressing ef 12 which is the start and stop key did nothing.

I'm gone for real :)

2021-01-22 01:37:53

Hi.


I'm going to uninstall this program, I don't think I'd use it much anyway but I do wish if it had a screen reader that it would say, do you want to use screen reader, press, then a keyboard shortcut.

I'm gone for real :)

2021-01-22 02:29:28

its an addon. its not built in to kodi brad. and i dont think you got the right thing. maybe not 10, maybe 11 or 9

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-22 02:48:15

Hi.

@rings, yeah I just remembered that it's an addon.


Oh wel; I can do the things Kodi can do with other programs.

I'm gone for real :)

2021-01-22 02:54:51

i mean if you want its open sorce as far as i remember so you could make a updated installer/build of it with the screen reader already going

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-22 03:58:27

Hi.


Ah, ok.

I'm gone for real :)

2021-01-22 06:17:53

I stopped using the piracy addons because I refuse to pay extra just so I can have access to their content.

If I'm going to do that, then I may as well just pay for Netflix or disney plus, which is what I'm doing anyway.

I'm using addons to access Netflix and disney plus.

They're not official, but you do need to have accounts with those services.

There's even addons for a few of the Aussie streaming services.

Kodi doesn't have to be used for pirated content, which no doubt, is what a majority of people use it for, but I stopped using it for piracy, because I got tired of running into dead links.

I know there are services you can pay for to get reliable links, but like I said above, what's the point when you may as well just pay for a legit service.

You can actually change the speech settings in kodi by hitting F6.

F12 will toggle the screen reader on and off.

It's these little things the guide doesn't tell you that are usefull.

I know about them because the author of the addon mentioned them on the thread for the screen reader quite some time ago.

There's nothing wrong with the guide, they must have added an extra service because it is now down arrow 10 times on windows when it use to be 9.

I wrote a similar guide on the official kodi screen reader thread on their forums, probably some time last year, so it'll be a few pages back in that thread, and the person at the time was able to get up and running right away.

I really don't know why some people have issues getting things up and running, everything works fine at this end.

Anyway, I think I've rambled on enough.

2021-01-22 07:28:34

Okay i download, kody  doing all thinks from guide but i can not download s creen reader addon. I combine doing that with nvda ocr function, and on 9 10 and 11 places when i pressing down arrow is another addons.

2021-01-22 07:34:42

strange. dont press down after pressing it 9 or 10 times

i am a system, i have headmates, and that is my life, and my discord is rings2006wilson#8609

2021-01-22 07:44:51

No, i do not press. I doing as i read in guide: shift a, enter. Shift d enter. Shift s enter. After that i press down arrow 10 time and press enter twice, but nothing happen. I press several time escape to return on home page, try this procces again, but instead of pressing down arrow 10 times, i try 9, but again nothing happen, i try this with 8 times,and 7, and 11, and 12, and 13 but all times when i try nothing happen