OE Patients

Tag: iOS

  • VoiceOver Speaks To You

    VoiceOver Speaks To You

    When a visual impairment makes reading screen text, on a mobile phone or tablet, an arduous endeavor, it may be time to embrace VoiceOver (VO). The gesture based screen reader, built-in to the Apple iPhone and iPad, will read the words to you.

    Turning on the Apple iOS screen reader can be as easy as asking Siri to “Turn on VoiceOver.”  It can also be turned on in Accessibility Settings, and an Accessibility Shortcut can be set to turn on, or off, from the home screen.  It is wise to first get comfortable turning VoiceOver on and off, as the regular touchscreen gestures are not functional while VO is in use.

    Once VoiceOver is engaged, on your iPhone or iPad ,it requires the use of unique gestures to navigate the screen. For example: Touch or tap once to select an item and the voice tells you what it is, then double tap, anywhere on the screen, to activate the selected item.  There are 12 VO gestures listed below to practice. It takes some time and concerted effort to switch from seeing to hearing the text, but it is well worth the work.  In fact, once mastered, this method evokes joy.

    The key to success is repetition, so go ahead and practice, practice, practice.  Before long you will have learned to listen and move around the screens with great ease. The VoiceOver gestures will become second nature, committed to muscle memory.

    Use your earbuds or AirPods and VoiceOver will speak just to you, privately in your ear.

    Stylish mature woman practicing VoiceOver gestures on her iPhone.
    Stylish mature woman practicing VoiceOver gestures on her iPhone.

    Here are the Voice Over Gestures you need to know.

    • Single Tap — select an item and it speaks
    • Double Tap — activates selected item (tap anywhere on screen)
    • One Finger Flick — right or left reads from item to item (left or right)
    • Two Finger Swipe Down —  starts reading at selected item
    • Two Finger Swipe Up –- starts reading from top of page
    • Three Finger Flick Right –- scroll forward one page
    • Three Finger Flick Left –- scroll back one page
    • Three Finger Flick Down/Up –- scroll up or down one page
    • Three Finger Flick  Down on Home Page — to open search field
    • One Finger Swipe Down to 1st vibration (or with Home Button swipe up from bottom) — to open Control Center
    • One Finger Swipe Down from Top to 2nd vibration (or press on Home Button)  — for Notifications screen
    • One Finger Swipe Up from Bottom  to Top (or Press Home Button Twice) —  for App Switcher

    (*Note: There is a “Screen Curtain” option that blackens the screen while using VoiceOver. It is sometimes turned on accidentally when 3 fingers touch the screen 3 times. Tapping with 3 fingers 3 times again will restore the screen.)

    Don’t forget, should you need help — call Apple Accessibility Support at 877.204.3939.  They are on call 24/7 and Voice Over is one of their specialties.

    We also love Hadley’s Listen with VoiceOver Series, video tutorials always available when you need them.

    This post was originally published Feb 27, 2017 and updated Jul 15, 2021.

  • Learning To Use Your iPad One App At A Time

    Learning To Use Your iPad One App At A Time

    Before you can begin to learn to use your iPad, it must be set up to your preferences. The easiest way to do this is with Personal Setup at an Apple Store or Apple Accessibility Support (877.204.3930).

    The iPad can potentially do a hundred things for you — try not to be overwhelmed by that. Pick your priorities — the things you will use the iPad for every day, like email, news, or book reading.

    Learn one app at a time, thoroughly. The learning process comes down to focus and repetition. If you use something every day and repeat the steps over and over, 20 or 30 times, it becomes ingrained. It becomes second nature.

    Repetition is the key to learning to do almost everything — especially navigating apps. This is not about whether you are a technophile. This is simply about whether you will repeat an action enough times to commit it to muscle memory.

    So don’t be afraid to touch the screen, again and again. It is the only way you can learn. Watching or listening to tutorials can be useful, but there are really no shortcuts. You can only learn by doing — and you will make mistakes as you go. Try to remember that every mistake will also teach you something. 

    The general rule of thumb, in the early stages of learning this, is to spend a minimum of 1 hour a day.

    First things first. Learn to power up and power down your iPad by pressing down on the Power button for a couple of seconds. Use the same button to put the iPad to sleep, and then wake it, with a quick press of the Power button. Repeat until comfortable. Use the Home button to bring up home pages. Repeat. Find the side Volume controls for increasing / decreasing sound.

    Learn to navigate the home pages. Swipe left and right to move from page to page. Open and close apps. You will develop a familiarity with the screens and the touch.

    When you are generally comfortable getting around the iPad screens — move on to an app you will be using every day, like iBooks. Books in print can become challenging to read for anyone experiencing a vision impairment that cannot be corrected. The iBooks app provides electronic books that accommodate significant increases in font size and a selection of preferred font style. Increase or decrease the brightness of the screen, and change the background color.

    You may even want to try having the book read to you. VoiceOver is the screen reader in Apple’s iOS mobile devices (iPhone & iPod as well) which will read the text aloud. This audible access is navigated with a different set of gestures from the visual access. Click here for a guide to VoiceOver Gestures.

    Books are downloaded directly into the iPad from the Library tab. Search for the book by title, author, topic or browse by categories on the bottom toolbar.

    Familiarize yourself with the tabs at the top and bottom of the iBooks screen. Then begin to enjoy a good book.

    And you don’t have to go it alone. Should you need some help…pick up the phone and call Apple Accessibility at 877.204.3930. Specialists are available 24/7 to support customers with visual impairments.

    Once you can get around your first app with ease — you have set the foundation for moving on to others. If the iPad can give you back book reading, it can potentially give you back newspaper reading, and email. It may help you to keep your Contacts, Calendar, Notes or Reminders. You can use it as your Camera (with a big viewfinder), and your Photo album with a Zoom feature.

    This is just the beginning.