How to Turn Off Narrator on Vizio TV in Easy Steps?

Wondering how to turn off narrator on Vizio TV? Well, stay with us throughout this guide!

The voice narrator on a Vizio TV is an accessibility feature, which simply narrates everything you do, by vocalizing all menus and settings.

This feature is very useful for people with eyesight issues and could be frustrating for the users, who don’t need vocal TV narration support.

To disable the narrator on your Vizio TV you would need to find the “Accessibility” menu for older Vizio TV models or a “Talk Back” feature for newer models.

Then you only need to toggle ON or OFF the respective feature to disable the option on your Vizio TV.

Let’s continue to unwrap!

Vizio TV Narrator | Talk Back – Explained 

The Vizio TV narrator or also known as a “Talk Back”, simply vocalizes the highlighted options in the menu to help you read or acknowledge.

For example, pressing the “Menu” remote button will make the narrator say “Menu” so you can know where exactly you’re at, in the TV menu.

The feature is excellent for elderly people or people with poor eyesight. Well, for others, the option is unnecessary and quite bothersome.

This is why in this guide we’ll provide you with the exact steps necessary to disable and enable the feature as per your preference.

How to Turn OFF Narrator on Vizio TV? – Old & New 

Now that we have a good understanding of how the narrator or “Talk Back” feature works it’s time to learn how to disable the option.

For this purpose, the Vizio TV must be connected to the power and working as well as the remote must be functional so you can navigate through the menus.

The guide below will show you the following:

• Turning OFF “Talk Back” on newer Vizio TVs
• Tweaking the “Accessibility” on older Vizio TVs

How to Turn OFF Voice Narrator on Vizio Smart TV?

The guide below will show you how to disable the voice narration on newer Vizio TV models:

Step #1 Power the TV & Prepare Remote

Jump to the next step if your Vizio TV is connected to power, working, and has a functional remote control.

Basically, you need to be able to navigate through the TV menus so you can reach and tweak the necessary settings.

Step #2 Go to the Vizio TV “Accessibility”

1. Using the remote control, press the “Menu” button.
2. This will open the general menu on the left side. 
3. Then, scroll down to locate the “System” settings. 
4. Next, you only need to go to the “Accessibility” tab. 

In the “Accessibility” app you would see the “Talk Back” feature, “Speech Rate” and “Zoom Mode”.

These features are all designed to help people read, see better or adjust the narration.

Step #3 Disable the “Talk Back” Feature

In there, you’ll be able to see the “Talk Back” feature, which can be toggled ON and OFF.

To toggle the feature OFF, you need to verify that the tab is highlighted and select once using the remote control. This will ultimately change the toggle to “OFF”, which will stop the narration.

How to Turn OFF Narrator on Old Vizio TV?

On older Vizio TV “non-smart” models, the voice narration feature also exists but the exact menu labels are different from the “smart” models.

Since older Vizio TV models do not share the same menu settings, what’s certain is that the narration option is in the “Accessibility” tab.

Here’s universal steps guide to disable the narration on old Vizio TVs:

1. Press the “Menu” button on the Vizio remote control.
2. In the menu, look for “Settings” or “System Settings”.
3. Inside the settings tab, locate the “Accessibility” label.
4. Highlight and enter “Accessibility” to review the settings.
5. Locate “Narration”, “Talk Back”, or “Voice Guidance”.
6. Highlight and toggle off, the respective accessibility feature.

Tip: In case the steps above do not apply to your non-smart Vizio TV, consult the user manual for exact steps and instructions.

Unwrapping the Vizio TV “Accessibility” Options!

Upon opening the “Accessibility” tab on old or new Vizio TVs, you’ll encounter several different options, designed to help you read, see or acknowledge.

If you’re unaware of how these options work and what they do, here’s a brief explanation for each of them and whether you need them!

Voice Guidance

Voice guidance is the primary feature of the accessibility settings.

As we’ve mentioned the option tracks the “highlighter” of the Vizio TV and narrates everything you do.

Well, with voice guidance, you don’t even need to see anything to be able to navigate through the menus.

Note: The voice guidance also narrates highlighted apps and settings within apps!

Speech Rate

The speech rate option is associated with voice guidance and only works when the narration or “Talk Back” is enabled on the Vizio TV.

As the setting name suggests, this is how fast or how slow the narration would be. The options include fast, normal, and slow modes for adjustment.

Closed Captions

The closed captions (CC) are an extremely helpful feature, which doesn’t depend on voice guidance or other options.

The captions are a great technology that listens to the dialogs while streaming content on the Vizio TV and provides as accurate subtitles as possible.

Well, the CC is not a subtitle, it is a real-time speech-to-text generation, which is not always correct but is extremely helpful for deaf people.

The closed captions come in handy when the show or movie doesn’t have in-built subtitles so you can simply enable and use the CC.

Zoom Mode

The zoom mode is another fantastic accessibility feature that enlarges the size of all texts, which involves the menu, subtitles, CC, and everything “readable”.

Sadly, the feature won’t work on absolutely every app, with a few known exceptions such as Amazon Prime and Netflix.

Note: All of the accessibility options can be enabled/disabled separately from one another in the “Accessibility” tab on your Vizio TV.

Vizio TV Voice Narrator Is Not Turning OFF – Why?

Sometimes, we do everything correctly. Go into the Menu > System, enter the Accessibility tab, and toggle OFF the “Talk Back” feature.

But soon after we realize that the setting did not take effect and we can still hear everything we do because the voice guidance still works…

Here are a few tips and tricks to apply to your Vizio TV if the narration won’t stop:

• Power cycle the TV by unplugging from the power for 60 seconds!
• Double-check if the “Talk Back” is disabled after the power cycle.
• Factory reset the Vizio TV by holding the Volume Down + Input buttons.
• Factory reset the Vizio TV by pressing the Reset button on the back.
• Factory reset from Settings > Help > Clear Memory  > Reset.

Info: Once the Vizio TV has been power cycled and reset, you would have to carry out the initial setup. 

Then the voice guidance should be disabled by default so you won’t hear any narration.

Why is the Narrator Feature Enabled by Default?

The reason why voice guidance or the “Talk Back” is enabled by default is to assist visually impaired people from the start.

Objectively, this is the correct approach from the manufacturers considering the inability of some people to enable the feature themselves from the start.

Can I Completely Remove the Narration?

You can only stop the feature but not erase the settings from the TV.

The narration feature is located in the “Accessibility” tab and can be toggled ON or OFF, respectively as per the user.

Is the Narration Available on all Vizio TVs?

It’s unclear whether the narration is in-built into all Vizio TVs but what’s certain is that all new models (new firmware) have this feature.

Perhaps very old Vizio TV models might not have the “Talk Back” feature, but it’s known that the feature exists on Vizio TV models since mid-2017.

Note: If you have more questions or need more help, contact Vizio Customer Support.

Quick Recap:

We now know how to turn off narrator on Vizio TV, and we’ve learned that on newer “smart” Vizio TV models, we need to toggle off the “Talk Back”.

We’ve also learned that on old TVs, we need to reach the “Accessibility” tab and look for a narration feature.

We hope that this guide was helpful so follow us for more!

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