BBC iPlayer Guide

A guide for users of the Jaws screen reader, written by David Bailes. More guides are available on the Jaws Guides page of the VIP Software Guides website.

Contents

Introduction

This is a guide to the BBC iPlayer website, which has the address www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer. On this website you can:

An alternative to using the BBC iPlayer website is to use some of the programs which are part of a package of programs from the WebbIE website. Some may find these programs easier or faster to navigate than a website. You can listen to previously broadcast radio programmes using the BBC iPlayer radio program, which has the advantage that it's easier to jump forwards and backwards in time. However the sound quality is not as good as that available from the BBC iPlayer website as it uses the lower bandwidth versions of the programmes. There is also a BBC iPlayer TV program in which programmes can be listed by either TV channel or category.

Organization of the website

The main pages of the website are:

When you open a link to programme which has been broadcast or open an ON NOW link to listen to a programme which is being broadcast, you've taken to a page for that programme, where you can control its playback.

There is a very useful search box on each page, which can be used for finding programmes based on their title, and for quickly moving to the pages for radio stations, TV channels, and categories.

Note that you can't search for the audio described versions of TV programmes. They are only available under the Audio Described category: either on the Audio Described category page, or on a TV Channel page after the Audio described category has been selected to refine the list of programmes.

Page structure

All the pages on the BBC iPlayer website have the same basic structure:

In addition, all the pages have informative titles which tell you where you are in the website. Press Insert + T to read the title bar.

Navigating pages

Given this basic page structure, these are some useful ways of navigating any of the pages:

Overview of tasks

Listening live

To listen live to a programme on a radio station or TV channel:

Listening to a programme which has been broadcast

To listen to a programme which has been broadcast in the last seven days:

Finding audio described versions

The audio described versions of TV programmes are only available under the Audio described category. So to find an audio described TV programme you can either:

Adding to favorites

If you use the iPlayer website frequently, you may find it useful to add some pages to your favorites/bookmarks. For example:

Programme page

When you open a link to a programme on one of the pages in the iPlayer website, such a category page or search page, then you're taken to a page for playing that programme. To start the playback, press the letter B to move to the Play/Pause button, and press it. If you open the On Now link on a radio station or TV channel page, you're also taken to a programme page, but in this case the playback starts automatically.

Note that the first time that you attempt to play a TV programme for which the BBC provides guidance, such as it containing adult themes, then a Parental guidance lock dialog opens, and you have confirm that you're 16 or over to be able to play it.

The rest of this section describes a programme page in more detail, including all the playback controls. All the programmes are played using a Flash Player plugin, so if the Play/Pause button and other buttons aren't present on the page, it probably means that you need to install it, as described in the Flash Player section.

The main content of the page includes:

Playback controls

The flash movie contains the following buttons and text, when appropriate:

You can move amongst all these items using Down Arrow and Up Arrow, and you can move between just the buttons using B and Shift + B.

Jumping forward and backwards in time

Note that when using both the volume button and the timeline button, there's no indication of the present setting. This isn't too much of a problem when setting the volume, but is a problem if you want to jump forward or backward in time using the timeline button. The best that can be done is to first read the two text items at the end of the flash movie, the current position and the duration of the programme, and do some quick mental arithmetic to work out roughly the percentage of the way through the programme. Then, knowing approximately where are, use the timeline button.

Parental guidance lock

The first time you press the Play/Pause button to play a TV programme for which there's guidance about its content, a pane with the title Parental Guidance Lock appears. This lets the user know that the programme contains strong language etc. There is a check box for confirming that you are aged 16 or older, and unless you check this, the programme won't play. This check box is followed by OK and Cancel buttons and two links for setting up parental control for children.

Unfortunately, Jaws does not always read this dialog correctly. When this happens it either starts reading text from the main window, or starts reading the dialog, but then wanders off somewhere else. Although the virtual cursor has lost its way, the check box does have the standard keyboard focus of the PC cursor. So if Jaws gets lost trying to read the dialog:

  1. Press Insert + Z to switch from using the virtual cursor to using the PC cursor. Press Insert + Up arrow to read the current object, and you should find that it's the check box.
  2. Press Spacebar to check the check box, Tab to the OK button and press it.
  3. The programme should start. Press Insert + Z to return to using the virtual cursor.

BBC iPlayer Console window

A programme is played in a BBC iPlayer Console window either when you open a link to a programme on the BBC website which isn't part of the iPlayer website, or when you press the pop out button on a programme page of the iPlayer website.

An iPlayer Console window is a separate window, and contains a flash movie for playing the programme, and a minimum of other items. The flash movie contains buttons and text, in a similar manner to the flash movie on a programme page.

Searching for a programme

If you know the name of the programme you want to find, then using the Search box is often the fastest way of finding it. However, TV programmes with audio description are not included in the search results.

  1. Press the navigation quick key E to move to the Search edit box, and press Enter to turn on forms mode.
  2. Type in one or more complete words, and press Enter. You're taken to the first page of one or more results pages for the search, which are described below.

Note that because the search box can also be used for finding the pages for radio stations, TV channels, and categories, if you type in the name of one of these, you'll be taken there rather than to a page listing programmes.

Search results page

The main content of the page includes:

Each item in the list of programmes consists of:

You can move through the list of programmes using either of the navigation quick keys I or H. The advantage of using the navigation quick key I is that it reads the name of both the programme and the episode, and also if there's more than one page of results, then after the end of the list, you automatically move to the list of links for navigating pages.

TV Channels

For each BBC TV channel, there are one of more pages which list the programmes available from that channel, and which also contain an On Now link for watching/listening live to the programme which is currently being broadcast. In addition, you can refine the list of programmes to those of a particular category, or date of broadcast.

There are a couple of ways of moving to the first page for a TV channel:

TV Channel page

The main content of a TV channel page includes:

Refining by category or date of broadcast

You can refine the list of programmes to those of a particular category or date of broadcast by opening the appropriate link as described below.

On a TV Channel page, after the list of links to the main sections of the website, there's a list of links to the TV channels. After the TV channel which the page describes, there's a nested list of two items: Schedule and Categories, and both of these are also level 2 headings. Following the Schedule item, there's a nested list of links to days, and following the Categories item, there's a nested list of links to categories. Note that the Schedule and Category items are also links. Opening one of these links toggles the visibility of the nested list which follows. However, these nested lists are readable by screen readers, whether or not they're visible, so there's no need to open them.

The easiest way of navigating to the Schedule and Category lists, is to use the quick navigation key H and then move through the items using Down Arrow. Then, for example, if you open the Audio Described link, you're taken to the first of one more pages of programmes which are available from the TV channel and which are Audio Described.

Radio stations

For each BBC radio station, there are one of more pages which list the programmes available from that station, and which also contain an On Now link for listening live to the programme which is currently being broadcast. In addition, you can refine the list of programmes to those of a particular category, or date of broadcast.

There are a couple of ways of moving to the first page for a radio station:

Radio station page

The main content of a radio station page includes:

Refining by category or date of broadcast

You can refine the list of programmes to those of a particular category or date of broadcast by opening the appropriate link as described below.

On a Radio station page, after the list of links to the main sections of the website, there are three lists of links for network radio stations, national radio stations, and local radio stations. After the radio station which the page describes, there's a nested list of two items: Schedule and Categories, and both of these are also level 2 headings. Following the Schedule item, there's a nested list of links to days, and following the Categories item, there's a nested list of links to categories. Note that the Schedule a Category items are also links. Opening one of these links toggles the visibility of the nested list which follows. However, these nested lists are readable by screen readers, whether or not they're visible, so there's no need to open them.

The easiest way of navigating to the Schedule and Category lists, is to use the quick navigation key H and then move through the items using Down Arrow.

Categories

There are a number of main categories like Comedy, Drama, Factual, and Audio Described. In addition, many of these have sub categories. For example, the Drama category has sub categories such are Crime, Historical and Soaps.

For each category there are one or more pages which list the programmes in that category. On both the the category pages and the page which lists all the main categories, there are three options for what programmes are listed: TV & Radio (the default),TV only, and Radio only. Note that as well affecting what programmes are listed, the choice of this option also affects what categories are listed. For example, if radio only is selected, then the Audio Described category is not listed.

There are a couple of ways of moving to the first page of the one or more pages for a category:

Category page

On a category page, as well as being able to browse through the programmes in that category, you can also navigate to other main categories, and any sub categories of a main category, as described in the next section.

The main content of a category page includes:

Note that on Category, TV channel and Radio station pages, if the programmes are listed in Alphabetical order, and more than one episode is available for a series of programmes, then by default only the most recent episode is shown in the list of programmes. However, the list item contains a link such as Show 3 more, which shows all the episodes if opened. Also, on a programme page for a programme for which other episodes are available, there's a list of the other episodes, so this provides another way of finding the other episodes.

Navigating to categories and sub categories

On a category page, after the list of links to the main sections of the website, there is a list of links for the main categories. If the page is for a main category which has sub categories, then after this category in the list there's a nested list of links to its sub categories.

The list of links to the main categories is the third list on the page, so from the top of the page you can get to it by pressing the navigation quick key L three times. You can then move to the nested list by pressing L again.

Flash Player

All the programmes are played using a Flash Player plugin for your web browser, and the Internet Explorer and Firefox web browsers each require a separate Flash Player plugin. A quick way of checking whether this plugin has been installed in your browser is to go the the Flash Player Home page on Adobe's website. If the plugin is installed, then a fairly noisy video clip automatically starts playing. If you need to install the plugin, this is described in the next two sections for Internet Explorer and Firefox respectively.

If you want to check what version of the plugin is installed, and what the current version is, you can go the About Adobe Flash Player page. The current version number is given within a flash movie, which is immediately before the table which gives the current version numbers. Unfortunately, Jaws does not read the current version when using Firefox, but for this browser you can find the current version by opening the Add-ons dialog from the Tools menu, and then moving to the Pluggins page. Note that you can get to the About Adobe Flash Player page by opening the context menu (Numpad *) of a button which is within a flash movie, and then choosing About Adobe Flash player. The page opens in a new Tab in the background, so that you then have to press Ctrl + Tab to move to it.

Installing Flash Player plugin for IE

If there are no versions of the Flash Player plugin installed, then one of the easiest ways of installing it is to go to a web page which puts a message in the information bar saying that it wants to install it.

  1. Go to the About Adobe Flash Player page.
  2. Press Alt + N to move to the Information bar, press Spacebar to open a pop up menu, and choose Install This Add-on for All Users on this Computer.
  3. An Internet Explorer Add-on Installer - Security Warning dialog opens, asking you whether you want to install the software. Tab to the Install button, and press it. The software is downloaded and installed, and you are returned to the web page.

An alternative way of installing the Flash Player plugin is as follows. This also works if you're trying to upgrade to a later version of the plugin.

  1. Go to the web page for installing Flash Player.
  2. Main content starts with the heading level 1, Adobe Flash Player. Note that before the link to Agree and Install there's a check box for also installing the Google Toolbar, which is checked by default. You may want to uncheck this. Open the Agree and Install link.
  3. You're taken to a new page. If you've previously installed Adobe's Download manager, then an Adobe Download Manger window may open which then automatically downloads and installs the plugin. Note that Jaws may not automatically read the dialog when it reports that the installation is complete. However, you can read the dialog by pressing Insert + B, and move to Close Download Manager button by pressing B.
  4. If you haven't previously installed Adobe's Download manager, then you can either download and install it, after which the Flash Player plugin is automatically downloaded and installed, or you can manually download and install the plugin. The latter is probably the easier option, and so the remaining steps describe this.
  5. Open the link “click here to download” which is near the bottom of the page.
  6. A File Download - Security Warning dialog opens, asking you whether you want to run or save the file for installing Flash Player. Tab to the Run button and press it.
  7. An Internet Explorer - Security Warning dialog opens, asking you whether you want to run the Flash Player installer. Tab to the Run button and press it.
  8. An Adobe Flash Player ActiveX Setup: Installing dialog opens. When the installation is finished, the title of the dialog changes to Adobe Flash Player ActiveX Setup: Completed, and a Close button becomes the focus, which you can press.

Installing Flash Player plugin on Firefox

  1. Go to the web page for installing Flash Player.
  2. Main content starts with the heading level 1, Adobe Flash Player. Note that before the link to Agree and Install there's a check box for also installing the Free McAfee Security Scan, which is checked by default. You may want to uncheck this. Open the Agree and Install link.
  3. You're taken to a new page. If you've previously installed Adobe's Download manager, then an Adobe Download Manger window may open which then automatically downloads and installs the plugin. Note that Jaws may not automatically read the dialog when it reports that the installation is complete. However, you can read the dialog by pressing Insert + B, and move to Close Download Manager button by pressing B.
  4. If you haven't previously installed Adobe's Download manager, then you can either download and install it, after which the Flash Player plugin is automatically downloaded and installed, or you can manually download and install the plugin. The latter option is the most straightforward: open the click here to download link, and follow the instructions in the various dialog boxes.