We’re so happy to be making more kids’ content accessible, with captions now available on HEIHEI. Ka mau te pai!

With the help of NZ On Air, the majority of local content and selected international titles can now be viewed with captions on HEIHEI, a joint venture by TVNZ and NZ on Air. Captions will continue rolling out across the platform in the year ahead.

Tamariki will be able to develop important literacy skills by reading along with their favourite shows, including Fanimals, The Moe Show, Kiri and Lou and Danger Mouse. Whānau will also be able to join in the fun, with captions making these shows and more accessible for the Deaf, hard-of-hearing and viewers with English as a second language.

‘This is an exciting step forward for kids’ content accessibility in New Zealand,’ says Nicola van der Meijden, Able’s CEO. ‘HEIHEI is a fun and safe place for Kiwi kids to watch the content they love, and the team here at Able has been delighted to play such a crucial role in making this content accessible for more families. We’d like to extend our thanks to NZ On Air for their funding support of this project up till now and for the year ahead.’

TVNZ’s GM of Digital Content, Juliet Peterson, says, ‘HEIHEI is a place for Kiwi kids to watch and learn in an inspiring way. Adding closed captions to the service ensures children will be able to get even more out of the platform, and parents and guardians can get involved in ways they might not have been able to in the past. We think HEIHEI should be for all families, and this change brings us even closer to achieving that outcome.’

Programmes available with captions will have a captioning symbol within the video-player window.

To enable captions on…

  • the web (laptop/desktop computers), hover over the CC icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the video-player window, and then click ‘en-nz’.
  • the HEIHEI app for iOS (mobile and tablet), press the white box with black lines in it at the bottom right-hand corner of the video-player window, and then select ‘Text: On’.
  • the HEIHEI app for Android, press the white box with black lines in it at the bottom right-hand corner of the video-player window, and then select ‘Subtitles: English’.

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