Basic VoiceOver skills for low vision uses

Even though you have enough sight to view and read your iPhone or iPad screen you may occasionally prefer to have text spoken to you and maybe have buttons with mystifying pictures on them described to you. You only need to learn a small set of VoiceOver gestures to get by with a combination of your sight and VoiceOver. Here's how.

You can dip in and out of using VoiceOver using Siri. Instruct Siri to turn VoiceOver on or off. Follow this by saying goodbye to Siri to clear it off your screen.

With VoiceOver turned on here are some things that are really easy to do.

Apart from taps on specific items, VoiceOver gestures can be performed anywhere on the screen. Near the middle is best to ensure that all of the gesture is on the active part of the screen. Gestures described as swipes are flicks in a specific direction with one or more fingers. It's best just to brush the screen as if you were flicking dust off a jacket but if you find other ways to perform swipes that work better for you that's fine.

Tap any item on the screen to hear it spoken. 

Swipe right with one finger to hear the next item on the screen spoken.

Swipe left with one finger to go back to the previous item.

If you want to hear some text spoken, tap its beginning and VoiceOver will begin speaking the first part of the text. If you wish you can proceed through the remaining text a section at a time with swipes right or go backwards to hear something again with a swipe left.

If you prefer to hear the text spoken continuously, swipe down with two fingers.

Speech can be paused and resumed with a two finger tap. 

If you touch a button or icon on your screen VoiceOver will speak its name. If you want to use that item double tap rapidly with one finger.

You can get a lot done with a combination of your vision and a very few VoiceOver gestures. If you'd like to learn more take a look at my more detailed pages on VoiceOver.

Back to navigation page