Did you know that you can control some features of a device with a head movement? This is one of the new features in iOS 7 that we will talk about in the second part of the "All About Accessibility" article that we reviewed in part One From which we talked about improved pronunciation, enlarging handwriting, increasing contrast, reducing movement, translation, and other advantages that can be accessed through this link. In the following lines, we are talking about controlling head movements, as well as the voiceover.

VoiceOver:

Sometimes some people have difficulties reading the screen and what is in it, so Apple added this feature, which is a built-in screen reader and supports many languages, including Arabic It speaks all the screen elements either in order or by simply touching the element.

Watch a video tutorial from Apple in 2009 for the feature when it was added, and then move on to the explanation:

Once the feature is activated, you will see the option to practice VoiceOver, which is specific to your training to use the feature

By choosing to practice (by clicking twice), a new screen will open for you in which you train, for example you want to know what it means to swipe on the screen or tap twice with one finger or or, do so and the meaning of this movement will appear to you.

There are also some options in the feature that enable you to optimize the performance as you want.

Braille: It is for using bluetooth accessories for braille.

Vertigo:

It is an advantage for using the device by hearing several pre-selected options from the settings, for example choosing “Addresses” so that swiping down or up on the screen takes you to the next address and not the next item. The rotor can be activated in two ways:

  • By placing two fingers on the screen as a caliper, then turning against the screen.
  • Drag a finger up and a finger down at the same time.

Among the options for the rotor:

Activate the handwriting: It enables you to enter text by drawing on the screen after hearing the voice.
Activate vertical navigation: It is to "scan" vertically between items on the screen by dragging up or down.

There are many other benefits, such as saying notifications, choosing a large indicator for "the visually impaired", among others.

List of VoiceOver shortcuts

VoiceOver shortcuts using one finger:

  • Swipe right to select the next item, left swipe to select the previous item.
  • Pull up or down depending on rotor pressure.
  • Activate the item by pressing twice in succession.
  • Two presses and hold the second press to edit the applications (change the location or change the name of the application) or extract the hidden characters (A, A, A, ...).
  • Press the top of the status bar to announce the iPhone's Wi-Fi information, clock time, battery charge percentage.
  • Using the table index: to browse lists alphabetically by directly touching the index, such as in the contacts on the far right of the screen, moving with one finger up or down to hear the letters, and swiping to the right to move the cursor movement to hear the names.

Two-finger VoiceOver shortcuts:

  • Double-finger tap to pause or resume pronunciation when reading an article or browsing a site.
  • Double tap the screen to answer calls, record via Voice Memos, play / pause video, turn on / off alarm, play / pause music.
  • Swipe up with two fingers to read from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen.
  • Swipe down with two fingers to read from the selected item down, respectively.
  • Swipe up, down, and up again with two fingers to return to the previous page.
  • Press 3 times with two fingers to open the item selector.

VoiceOver shortcuts with three fingers:

  • Pressing once on the screen with three fingers gives additional information about the selected item and the page number on it.
  • Swipe down from the top of the mobile bar with three fingers to access the iPhone search.
  • Pressing twice on the screen with three fingers to disable or activate the voiceover.
  • Pressing 3 times with three fingers, turns on / off the lighting from the screen (the screen curtain), and it helps to dim the screen for the sighted.
  • Three-finger swipe left or right to move between pages.

VoiceOver shortcuts using four fingers

  • Four-finger tap at the top of the screen will speak the first screen element.
  • Four-finger tap at the bottom of the screen will speak the last screen element.

Switch Control:

Settings> General> Accessibility> Switch Control:

Some people cannot control the iPhone by touch, so the device is the best for people with special needs, when the feature is activated, you will find a cursor that moves between the screen elements in a sequential manner horizontally and you can control the movement by the movement of the head or customize other movements as we will explain in the following steps:

First, watch a video to review how the feature works, to familiarize yourself with it in action

Relays:

It enables you to create new switches (toggles means selection method in navigation). And when you click on Add a new switch, you will see:

  • external: It enables you to connect with a Bluetooth device.
  • Screen: It enables you to choose an element of the screen to work with the switch control by choosing a scanner element or a system element that is activated when you touch the screen
  • Camera: Control the elements by moving the head left or right. So you can program the device, for example, that moving your head to the left means opening Siri.

Auto scan: Activating it makes the selection move automatically.

Timing:

  • Auto scan time: It defines the time period for moving the indicator to the next point.
  • Stop timer: It enables you to choose how long the indicator waits before the start of the transitions.
  • Loop Frequencies: The number of times the pointer will move over all of the objects.

Color Index: To choose the color of the transition indicator.

Sound effects: Adds sound effects for Switch Control.

There are many other benefits that are easily recognizable when using it, but we wanted to mention only the main points.

Are you using any of the accessibility features? Do you think iOS deserves to be a friend with special needs? Share your opinion

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