Basics of VoiceOver Gesture Control iOS V7.1

New to VoiceOver?: Learn the Basic Gestures

The built-in screenreading layer for the iOS platform is called VoiceOver (VO) and over several versions it has grown into an extremely capable assistive technology, singlehandedly opening up the word of Apple apps to blind and visually impaired users across the world.

However, with that power and flexibility comes complexity and that's why it's important to have a firm grasp of the basics of the gestural language you can use to control the built-in screenreader. With that in mind, let's refresh the basics - the more gestures you get to know and understand instinctively, the more positive your experience of iOS and the many VO-friendly apps that are available. To follow then is a list of my own favourite VO gestures, not an exhaustive list, but most of the goodies are in here.

First... The On and Off of VoiceOver

Of course, VoiceOver is running already isn't it? But what you may not be aware of is that iOS has an "accessibility shortcut" that you can set, that way you can press the Home button three times quickly to start and stop the software. You can set this as follows:

1. Open the Settings page.
2. Select the General option, located on the left-hand side of the screen.
3. On the right hand side of the screen, activate the Accessibility option.
4. In the Accessibility page, navigate to and activate the Accessibility Shortcut option - in iOS V7.1.2 this is the last option in the page.
5. In the Accessibility Shortcut page, choose the VoiceOver option. Note that you can also choose a different solution, such as "Zoom" the built-in magnification software.
6. When you have set the VoiceOver option, return to your Home menu and test out the shortcut. Press the Home button three times, rapidly yet firmly, to load and unload VoiceOver.

Sample One Finger VoiceOver Gestures

The easiest and most common gestures when VoiceOver is running use only the one finger. Let's explore them:

• Scan/Touch: Reads the current area or item under your finger - this is the main gesture for moving around the system.
• Double tap: When you have an item in focus, such as an application, you can use the double tap gesture to launch it. Note that you do not have to double tap on top of the item that is selected - you can double tap anywhere on the screen. (This is because VoiceOver is focused on the last item it has announced. For example, if the last thing VoiceOver said was "Safari" then a double tap anywhere on the screen will launch the Safari web browser.)
• Swipe right: A swipe is a "flick" with your finger across the screen. Note that you do not need to be overly concerned with the length of the swipe, but the movement must be fluid and swift. A swipe to the right moves the VoiceOver focus to the next item or area of focus. Swiping right is the gesture used to move quickly to the next item or object, test it out on the Home page. Notice how a swipe right moves the focus quickly through the items.
• Swipe left: As with "swipe right", this gesture is the same except that it moves the VoiceOver focus backwards.
• Swipe Up and Down: This gesture is used to set options for whatever area you have selected via the rotor configuration control. The rotor is one of the main areas you can work with to adjust the behaviour of VoiceOver and, as a result of this, "swipe up" is a gesture you probably won't need to use a huge amount.

Sample Two Finger VoiceOver Gestures

• One finger scan, one finger tap: Using a double-tap to activate is all very well but a quicker method is to scan with one finger and use another finger to perform a "tap to activate". For example, if I have a finger on the icon for "Safari" then I can tap on the screen with another finger to activate it.
• Swipe Up: VoiceOver begins reading the current area, from the first object down.
• Swipe Down: VoiceOver starts reading from the current item down.
• Tap: Pauses and restarts VoiceOver speech.
• Tap twice: If you are playing music, this gesture stops and starts the currently playing song.
• Tap twice and hold fingers on screen: You should hear three beeps which indicates the custom label mode is active. Focus will move to a small dialog box, giving you the opportunity to insert a meaningful text label for the current item which VoiceOver will echo. A very useful option this, giving you the option of improving the overall accessibility of an object.
• Tap three times: This launches the "Item Chooser", allowing you to move through a straight top to bottom list of all items in the current page.
• Rotation: This sometimes tricky gesture opens the rotor configuration tool, giving you the option of changing different VoiceOver settings such as "words", "speech rate" and "headings". To activate the rotor, put two fingers on the screen then pivot one finger around the other one as if you were tracing a circle, you will hear VoiceOver reading out the options you can change. For example, if I wanted to alter the speech rate, I can turn the rotor until I hear VoiceOver indicate "speech rate". Having selected this, I then use the aforementioned "swipe Up" or a "swipe down" to adjust the individual rate to the desired level.
• Scrub or "Z": If you quickly drag your two fingers across the screen (imagine that you are "scrubbing" something out) you will return to a previous page, such as in Safari the web browser.

Sample Three Finger VoiceOver Gestures

• Triple tap: The three finger triple tap turns the screen curtain on and off.
• Double tap: The three finger double tap turns VoiceOver speech on and off.
• Swipe left: Flicking to the left with three fingers moves to the next screen, such as when moving from the Home screen.
• Swipe right: Flicking to the right moves to the previous screen.
• Swipe up: Flicking up scrolls down a page.
• Swipe down: Flicking down scrolls up a page.

And that's it! Keep practising the gestures and before long they will become instinctive. We'll be picking up some of the features discussed here in a future post too. Have fun!

Looking for more information for VoiceOver on the Apple platform? Then please visit:

www.applevis.com

The official Apple support pages can be found here on Apple UK:

www.apple.com/uk/support