iPad Accessibility iOS 11

With every release of a new operating system, Apple has added and enhanced accessibility features. The following provides a brief overview of current features and how to interact with them.

  • Accessibility Options and how to get there:
  • Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver, Zoom, etc.
  • Accessibility Shortcut – this allows you to choose a specified accessibility feature once “Triple-Click” the home button is activated.
  • Video Descriptions– will automatically play if it is available
  • Zoom – Three fingers double-tap to turn on/off Zoom.
  • To move around the screen once Zoom is enabled, use 3 fingers
  • Double tap three fingers and drag up or down to change the magnification level.
  • You can choose window zoom or full screen zoom
  • A controller can be used instead of using 3 fingers to change zoom
  • Speech – independent of VoiceOver
  • Speak Selection – requires a selection and will be an option with editing choices
  • Speak Screen (new feature) –Will speak entire contents of screen from top to bottom. To activate swipe down with two finders from the top of the screen.
  • Highlight Content - highlights text as it is being spoken.
  • A control menu bar will appear allowing you to change the speech rate, pause/resume, and fastforward/rewind.
  • Voices – Allows you to choose from 5 English dialects, and 27 different languages.
  • Pronunciations – allows you to customize the way a selected word is pronounced.
  • VoiceOver
  • Rate – Shown as a slide bar. This can also be changed on the fly in the rotor settings.
  • Verbosity
  • Speak Hints, i.e., spelling suggestions
  • Emoji Suffix – this will speak the word “emoji” when emojis are read in text content
  • Use Sound Effects – provides additional auditory cues and clues
  • Speech –
  • 22 choices. Alex is the most realistic, but requires a 869 MB download.
  • Pronunciations- allows the user to determine how words or phrases are pronounced
  • Languages can be added to the Rotor
  • Braille
  • Braille Display Output: Uncontracted six/eight-dot or contracted
  • Braille Display Input: Uncontracted six/eight-dot or contracted with a toggle for Automatic Braille Translation
  • Braille Screen Input: Uncontracted six/eight-dot, or contracted.
  • Other options: Status Cell, Nemeth Code for Equations, Onscreen Keyboard, Turning Pages, and Braille translation with three choices
  • Connect to a Braille Display via Bluetooth – pairing is seamless for most devices
  • Audio: here Sound Effects and Audio ducking can be toggled on or off
  • Rotor – this is a special VO gesture that gives you quick access from any location. You select what you want to appear in the rotor. This works just like turning a dial rotating two fingers clockwise or counter clockwise to select an item.
  • Typing Style –
  • Standard Typing – double tap to select a character
  • Touch Typing – move your finger until you hear the character that you want and lift your finger to select.
  • Direct touch typing – types the letter as it is touched. This style is primarily used by students with low vision needing VoiceOver support.
  • Phonetic Feedback – Off, Characters and Phonetics, Phonetics Only
  • Typing Feedback – allows you to select options for both hardware and software keyboards.
  • Modifier Keys – allows the user to select a key to be pressed to activate VoiceOver when using a connected keyboard
  • Speak Notification - toggled on and off
  • Navigate Images – choices are Always, With descriptions, and Never
  • Large Cursor – creates bold line around selection
  • Double-Tap Timeout – allows the user to specify a time between taps to perform a double-tap in VoiceOver.
  • Gestures
  • 1 finger gestures
  • Move around the screen – speaks the item under your finger
  • Single Tap – selects an item without activating it
  • Double Tap – Activates the selected item
  • Double Tap and hold – Activates drag mode
  • Swipe left or right – speaks the previous or next item
  • Swipe up or down – moves focus to previous or next item using Rotor setting, or changes the status of the current Rotor setting
  • 2 finger gestures
  • Single tap – Pause/Resume speech
  • Double tap – starts and stops the current activity, including answering and ending a call and pausing and resuming a video or music.
  • Double tap and hold – adds a label to the selected item
  • Triple Tap – opens item chooser (1 finger double tap to close)
  • Swipe Up – Reads everything from first object in selected area
  • Swipe down – Read everything from selected item
  • Scrub back and forth(as if you were drawing a “Z”) – cancels action, closes pop-up, or goes back
  • Pinch in or out – selects or deselects items or text
  • Twist left or right – moves through rotor choices
  • 3 finger gestures
  • Single Tap – speaks the current page number and position
  • Double Tap –Speech on/off
  • Triple Tap – Screen curtain on/off
  • Swipe Left/Right – moves to previous/next page or scree n
  • Swipe Up/Down – works like scrolling up or down
  • Quadruple tap – copies the last spoken word to the clipboard
  • 4 finger gestures
  • Single tap the upper half of screen – selects the first item in the area
  • Single tap in the lower half of the screen – selects the last time
  • Swipe left or right – when in an app this switches to the previous or next app
  • Swipe up or down – opens or closes a multitask pane
  • Double tab – Turns on/off gesture help
  • 5 finger gesture
  • Pinch in – closes current app
  • Other Gestures
  • From the status bar swipe three fingers down – opens Notification Center
  • From the status bar swipe three fingers up – opens the Control Center
  • To dismiss both items do a two-finger scrub