Accessibility Assistance

Dickey Rural Telephone Cooperative provides products and services to requesting customers with visual impairments for easier digital content engagement.

Accessibility – Dickey Rural Telephone Cooperative offers its customers navigation devices with the requisite accessibility features for customers that are blind or visually impaired.  Dickey Rural Telephone Cooperative’s video platform provides support for screen readers, keyboard navigation, and audible accessibility for the enjoyment of Dickey Rural Telephone’s programming on any TV in the home and for recording programs in the cloud for playback on linked devices.

To obtain additional information such as user guides in accessible format, or to request support with Accessibility and instrumental products, services, devices and features, including Braille, large print documentation, and audible accessibility please call us at 701-344-5000 or visit www.drtel.com.

For any concerns or complaints, please contact us:

Email: TAGMailGroup@drtel.com

Phone: 701-344-5000

Mail: PO Box 69, Ellendale, ND 58436

Additional Accessibility Support

Large-Button Remotes – Remote Controls with larger buttons are available for purchase at DRN and can be swapped for your current remote.

Bill Reading – If Customer will pay the bill by phone, Customer Service Representatives will read the Customer’s bill over the phone, upon request.

Video Description – Audio-narrated descriptions of the key visual elements of a TV program or movie are available by purchasing a TIVO set top box.  These features can accessed by following the below steps.

When the Video Description (Audio Description) track is turned on, a voice describes the action taking place on the TV screen during natural pauses in the audio. Note: Not all shows include a video description track.

To turn the video description track on or off, press and hold the C button on your TiVo remote for at least two seconds. This will change the audio track of the show to the secondary audio track, which is often the Audio Description track.
Important: If there are multiple audio tracks, pressing the C button for two seconds will cycle through all available tracks.
This function will not work if any overlays are present (like the Info Banner that appears over the video when you change channels, or the Status bar that appears when you pause, fast forward, or rewind video). If you press and hold C but get no response, try pressing CLEAR – the leftmost button on the bottom row of your remote – to clear any overlays. Then press and hold C again.

Turning On or Off Audio Descriptions on a TiVo To toggle Audio Description (also called Video Description) press and hold the “C” button on and off, on the remote for at least two seconds.

• If “C” is pressed for less than two seconds, the button performs its “normal function.”

NOTE: When an overlaying menu is displaying (e.g. a show’s “info”) the hotkey function will not work.

• While watching a video, you can press Info and select the Audio tab to select the SAP track or Spanish language.

NOTE: There is a rare possibility that a show might have the audio description on a non-SAP track. If you don’t hear audio descriptions, try cycling through the rest of the available tracks. 

remote control

You can also manually turn on the Audio Description (Video Description) track by going to:

Menu path for TiVo HomeMenu path for TiVo Home
TiVo BOLT &TiVo RoamioMENU > SETTINGS > ACCESSIBILITY > Language & Audio Description Choose the default language for the upcoming shows that have multiple language tracks or turn on an audio description for shows that have an audio description available.
sample screen shot 1

Devices on TiVo Experience 3 Software Version: 20.X

TiVo DevicesMenu path from TiVo Central
TiVo BOLT, TiVo Roamio & TiVo Premiere Series (HD and SD)Settings & Messages > Settings > Audio > Alternate Audio > Default Audio Language
Choose the default language for the upcoming shows that have multiple language tracks or turn on an audio description for shows that have an audio description available.
sample screen shot 2

NOTE: For more information about accessibility, see: www.tivo.com/accessibility

Turning on or off Audio Descriptions on the TiVo App or TiVo Online

• iOS App: There is an “AD or SAP” icon at the top status bar that can be selected to toggle the feature on/off. It is brightly colored when on and gray when off.
• Android App: There is an “AD or SAP” in a rectangle on the right corner of the status or progress bar that can be tapped to toggle the feature on/off. It is brightly colored when on and gray when off.
• TiVo Online: When playing a video, there is a SAP icon that is used to toggle the feature on/off.
NOTE: For more information about accessibility, see: www.tivo.com/accessibility


Directory Assistance – We can help you find and dial phone numbers. In addition, you may be eligible for discounted or free directory assistance service.

Closed Captioning – Navigation devices provided by Dickey Rural Telephone Cooperative include a mechanism reasonably comparable to a button, key, or icon for easy activation of the embedded closed captioning function. An automatic closed captioning lock is also available, so captions will always be turned on when you want to watch TV. 

TTY Dialing – Phone service is compatible with TTY equipment.