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Submitted by Scott Davert .
Introduction
Another Autumn means another release of iOS. Just like releases of iOS
dating back to 2009, this release brings a lot of new features and functions
for blind and DeafBlind users. Major changes in iOS 15 include a new Focus
Mode, several enhancements with FaceTime, the ability to use Siri for
certain tasks while offline, and much more. Many blogs will be highlighting
these enhancements to iOS, so I will not discuss them in great detail here.
This article covers accessibility features impacting individuals who are
blind or DeafBlind.
One of the joys and curses of getting a new release from Apple is that they
do not actively document the changes in accessibility with their products.
This is good for me because it gives me the chance to share new features
with my readers, but it is also a challenge. While I have worked extensively
with iOS 15 since the first beta release in June, there will inevitably be
things that I have missed. This is also part of the fun; whenever I discover
a new feature, it's almost like solving a puzzle or getting an early
birthday present. Prior to upgrading, I strongly encourage people to check
out
<https://www.applevis.com/blog/accessibility-bugs-introduced-and-resolved-io
s-15-and-ipados-15-blind-and-low-vision-users> AppleVis' list of bugs
present and resolved in iOS 15. If you are reading this article after
subsequent versions of iOS 15 have been released, it is possible that some
of the bugs present in the initial release of iOS 15 will have been
resolved; you can always check <http://www.applevis.com/bugs> The AppleVis
Bug Tracker for the most up-to-date list of
<https://www.applevis.com/bugs/ios-ipados-active> active iOS and iPadOS
bugs. With that said, here are the changes Detective Davert found while
investigating accessibility with iOS 15:
An Important Note About Older iPhone Models
There is good and bad news concerning older iPhone models. The good news is
that if you were able to install iOS 14 on your device, iOS 15 will also
work on your device. I installed iOS 15 on an iPod touch 7, and found that
it worked quite smoothly. There was no noticeable difference in the amount
of time apps took to load, no degradation in the speed at which I could
type, and there were indeed some new functions. However, there are certain
features which will not be supported on devices that are older than the
iPhone XS; this is due to the fact that the older devices run slower
processors which cannot use some of the new enhancements. For a list of
features announced at WWDC which will not be available on older devices,
check out
<https://www.iphonehacks.com/2021/06/ios-15-features-not-available-older-iph
ones.html> this article from iPhone Hacks. Note that the iPhone SE 2020 and
iPhone XR do both support all of the upgraded functionality in iOS 15.
Some General Changes in iOS 15
This section is intended to give the reader a few mainstream enhancements
which I felt were the most significant in terms of accessibility itself. It
is not a comprehensive list; there are already many such lists available
online.
Siri
As briefly noted above, it is now possible to have Siri perform certain
tasks without utilizing the internet. This allows the user to, for example,
have Siri enable accessibility features without having to be on a connection
to the internet. It also means that certain tasks can be completed much more
quickly. Opening apps, setting timers, toggling features, and several other
options are available. Using Siri while offline does not require you to
change any setting; it is part of the upgrade.
Follow-up is now more useable with Siri. For example, if you are browsing a
contact and say "message them," it will open a text that you can dictate to
the user onscreen. Siri has also gained new supported languages, including
Danish, Finish, Swedish, and Norwegian.
Picture This Text
One of the new functions in iOS 15 is called Live Text. Available on the
iPhone XS and later, Live Text allows you to read text from photos and with
the Camera app. Similar to the Short Text option in
<https://apps.apple.com/us/app/seeing-ai/id999062298> Seeing AI, Live Text
uses AI to identify text. Unlike Seeing AI, though, Live Text in iOS 15 does
not require an internet connection to work. However, Seeing AI will run on
devices older than the XS and of course has other capabilities besides text
recognition. Both services are free.
After launching the Camera app, if text is detected in the view finder,
VoiceOver will announce "text detected." If you find the "Detect Text"
button and double-tap it, you will be presented with the text that was
found. Like taking any sort of photo with a portable camera, it is important
to do this with a steady hand. Like Seeing AI and any other app which
performs OCR, it can be quite challenging for a braille-only user who needs
to have both a steady hand and the ability to read braille one-handed. The
information that text has been detected is conveyed with the alert messages
function, so this could also present challenges for slower braille readers.
For example, if the text goes out of focus before the "Detect Text" button
is activated, the button will disappear and you will need to focus on the
text and try again.
If text has been detected, activating the option to read the text will
present it in a way which is easily readable by VoiceOver and braille.
Selecting the "Detect Text" button also puts a stop to the camera attempting
to recognize other things in your environment.
next to the detected text, there will be a series of buttons which enable
the user to take action on the text. Select All, Copy, and Look Up are all
options on basic text. If the text detected includes a phone number or email
address, this text becomes a link, and the user can activate it to carry out
the default iOS option for that type of content. I recently scanned a few
business cards from a convention I went to in 2019, and was able to get the
printed contact information on each card. The same set of options are
available in the Photos app, so if you have a photo with text, you can also
take advantage of Live Text.
Don't Leave Meeeeeee!!!
Within the Find My app, there are now options to notify you when you have
been separated from your AirTag. If, for example, I had attached an AirTag
to my wallet, and my wallet falls out of my pocket, I would be notified that
I had left it behind. Once I am notified, I then have all of the options
associated with Find My, which will allow me to hopefully get the lost item
back.
VoiceOver Changes in iOS 15
Quickly Accessing Even More Settings
Over the years, Apple has come up with new ways of providing quicker access
to VoiceOver's functions. With iOS 15, there is a new way to access even
more settings. Whether you are suffering from a cluttered VoiceOver Rotor or
running out of custom gestures, you now have another option with VoiceOver
Quick Settings. You can access the Quick Settings menu by performing a
2-finger quadruple-tap, or pressing VO+v on a hardware keyboard. Note that
as of iOS 15.0, there is no braille display equivalent for the VoiceOver
Quick Settings command, and no option to add this to a keyboard assignment.
It is not only possible to utilize the settings in this menu, but one can
also add, remove, and reorder the items. To do this, head over to Settings >
Accessibility > VoiceOver > Quick Settings and view all of the
possibilities. You will notice that these items are adjustable like the
Rotor and that you can double-tap to go into a submenu to change the setting
that way. Many of the options in Quick Settings mirror those available to
access from the Rotor, so one can save the rotor for things like navigation
if you wish, and use Quick Settings for other
needs. Reordering the items in this menu is also easy to use and works the
same way you would reorder items in the Rotor.
Grouped Navigation
Grouped Navigation is another new VoiceOver feature in iOS 15; the purpose
of this new navigation style is to group certain types of similar screen
items together so that your interaction can be more manageable with that
group. For example, in the Mail app, the messages list when in an email
account is its own group. However, it's important to note that Grouped
Navigation is a work-in-progress, as indicated by struggles I have had with
this feature. With Mail, for example, having Grouped Navigation enabled
allows you to swipe past the "Dictate" button, but will not continue onto
the group of messages. Instead, you must hit the touchscreen, and when you
do, it will automatically start interacting. You can also move by container
to get into the group, but that seems like more trouble than it's worth. The
intent is to make this feature work like it does on the Mac, as evidenced by
the 2-finger swipe right to begin interacting, and 2-finger swipe left to
stop interacting with a group. On a keyboard, VO modifier with Shift Down
Arrow will enter a grouping, while VO modifier with Shift Up Arrow will stop
interaction. There appears to not be a braille display keyboard equivalent
for these actions. At the moment, I am not finding Grouped Navigation to be
a feature I will be using. If you find it of use, you can add it to the
VoiceOver rotor to toggle off and on, as well as toggle it in Quick Settings
or by going to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Navigation Style.
More Verbosity
Verbosity has again been expanded to include new capabilities. To check out
what's new, you can read on, and/or follow along by navigating your way to
Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Verbosity.
One of the new items you can adjust is the way in which you are informed of
the status of QuickNav. When it is changed from one setting to another, you
now have the options to have this info conveyed with speech, a sound,
changing the pitch of speech, through braille, or to have it do nothing at
all.
From time to time, my flashlight can be turned on by accident. This is
frustrating; unless someone is around to let me know that it has been
activated, the only ways I typically can find out is if my phone is really
warm or my battery takes a quick nose dive in the amount of juice it has
left. With iOS 15, under the Verbosity menu, there is now an option to be
notified when the flashlight is enabled. When one locks the screen, there
will be a speech announcement that says, "Flashlight on." If there was a
braille flash message that comes along with the "Screen Locked" message, I
did not notice it when testing this functionality. If the flashlight is left
on for more than a minute after the screen is locked, a notification will
also appear on the Lock Screen from VoiceOver.
In iOS 14, Verbosity allowed users to control whether they are informed
about when the Actions rotor is available. A nice addition to this menu is
the option to have it sent to the braille display. While it can be a
hindrance in the Mail app, since you would need to read "actions available"
with each new line of text, it is something which can be of value in
different circumstances. This is especially true for apps which take
advantage of this rotor option where it may not be obvious until the user
checks for it. One other added control is the ability to specify whether
numbers are spoken as words or as digits.
Explore the Expanded Descriptions
One of the things sometimes missing from images in iOS 14 and before with
text recognition was the ability to explore what is positioned where within
an image. This option is now available on any photo. Not only can one expand
the description by choosing the rotor option that is now included, but the
user can then flick left and right through the detected content, which can
give a good overview of what is in the photo. If you encounter an image in
another app, this feature is also available. I am finding image descriptions
more useful now that the technology has matured. The amount of details
available within these images is amazing, and I also like the new ability to
explore by swiping or touching the screen. This puts it into a format which
does not rely on the VoiceOver alert messages feature, which is more
difficult to access, especially for a braille user who may be a slower
reader.
Another enhancement that is somewhat related, is the ability for content
creators to add image descriptions that can be read by VoiceOver in Markup.
This allows creators to generate their own descriptions which can be more
accurate than what you may find using the AI-driven options.
Rotor Settings Become Less Mysterious
Previous to iOS 15, a VoiceOver user trying to adjust certain settings would
have to change them to figure out the status of that rotor option-for
example, whether a certain feature is on or off. In iOS 15, VoiceOver gives
you the information each time you move to specific rotor options such as the
speech rate.
Right-to-Left Support
For those who read in languages where one reads from right to left,
VoiceOver can now be set to reverse the left-to-right navigation. This
setting can be controlled under Quick Settings if the app developer supports
this. By default it is set to "Automatic."
Visual Accommodations
No One Size Fits All
In iOS 13, VoiceOver users were introduced to a feature called Activities,
which allowed the user to control how specific apps behaved based on an
Activity. Think of an Activity as a group of custom settings; for example,
if you preferred that you had one voice reading your email messages and
another that read your books for whatever reason, you could set these
options accordingly. However, this was a VoiceOver function only. iOS 15
changes that in many ways.
If you head over to Settings > Accessibility > Per-App Settings, you will
have the ability to customize many of the visual settings for each app on
your device. If you want Invert Colors on for one app, for example, and not
for another, this menu will allow you to specify your preference. It is also
possible to apply something to all apps, or on the Home screen. Some of the
settings you can change include: contrast settings, Smart Invert, Cross-Fade
Transitions, and many more.
The other thing the Per-App functionality brings, is the ability to set the
text size on a per-app basis via the Control Center. To do this, one must
first put the option in the Control Center, which can be found under
Settings > Control Center. Then, while in any app, open Control Center and
select the Text Size control. You will then be presented with a screen that
has a slider to change text size and a toggle that lets you choose between
All Apps or only the app you're currently using.
An Independent Magnifier
The Magnifier has been located under the Accessibility settings menu for
many releases of iOS, and it has expanded dramatically over the past couple
of years while still being able to do things like spot read. in iOS 15,
Magnifier has become its own standalone app.
Hearing
Accommodate These Headphones
Headphone Accommodations for supported Beatz and AirPods were introduced in
iOS 14. When turned on, if you have a set of supported headphones, you are
walked through a form of hearing test which will ask you questions about
what you hear. Based on that information, iOS will optimize the sound for
your hearing loss. iOS 15 makes this easier by allowing for the importing of
a paper or PDF audiogram. You can still use the test discussed above, but
this seems much faster and the resulting sound has been reported to be
nearly as effective as using the manual method. To access these new
Accommodation options, which are in a different menu from iOS 14, head to
Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations.
Hanging out in the Background
Also under Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual, you will find an option
called Background Sounds. These sounds can come in handy to help someone
focus, but can also help potentially support people with tinnitus. Not only
can you play a background sound, but you can customize how it behaves. You
can independently control the volume of the sound, whether the sound
continues when media is playing, the volume for media itself, and have the
noise stop automatically when your screen is locked. Background Sounds is a
nice function, though it would be even nicer if there was a way to quickly
start and stop the playback through a control in the Control Center.
The sounds you can choose from include: Balanced Noise, Bright Noise, Dark
Noise, Ocean, Rain, and Stream. The recordings are in stereo and are of
decent quality.
Other Changes
I Wasn't Done Reading that Braille Flash Message, Thanks for Holding!
As noted above, I appreciate some of the elimination of the use of what iOS
refers to as VoiceOver Announcements. Not that the information previously
provided through them wasn't useful, because it was, but that particular
format caused issues for some braille users who were trying to read a
VoiceOver announcement that would disappear too quickly. This was a
particular challenge when accessing Rotor options. iOS 15 has done away with
delivering Rotor and some other functions this way, which makes them more
accessible to slower braille readers.
Switch Control Becomes Auditory
Sound Actions for Switch Control let you control iPhone with simple mouth
sounds. This feature allows for much easier access for some users who can't
or don't wish to utilize the other options like Switch Controls, a mouse, or
other gadgets. However, you can combine this feature with other forms of
Switch Control, so I would imagine this will be helpful for many.
New Sounds to Recognize
iOS 15 also adds two new sounds to its Sound Recognition options under the
household category. Breaking glass can certainly be handy, not only to help
alert you to something being dropped, but can also help you determine
whether someone is breaking in. I found that playing sound clips of breaking
glass through Youtube was mostly reliable, but just like with the other
sounds, it must be far above the threshold of sounds around you. I did not
have any false positives with this sound.
The other new sound is kettle. I couldn't get this one to work, but it would
be handy to have since this sound is outside my hearing range.
Conclusion
Though the changes in iOS 15 are not quite the amount of enhancements we
have seen in past releases, Apple continues to expand and enhance its
accessibility features with each release. Overall, I have noticed some
general stability improvements in this release. Whether you should upgrade
to iOS 15 is an individual decision no one should make on your behalf.
Remember, the ability to revert to iOS 14 is available for a short time
after release, but this process is not for the faint of heart. Once Apple
quits signing iOS 14, though, there will be no going back. I would again
encourage users to take a look at
<https://www.applevis.com/blog/accessibility-bugs-introduced-and-resolved-io
s-15-and-ipados-15-blind-and-low-vision-users> the bugs listed on the
AppleVis website and to check out iOS 15 on another device if possible prior
to installation on your primary device. iOS 15 is a free upgrade for all iOS
devices which run iOS 14, and can be downloaded and installed by visiting
Settings> General> Software Update.
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