How to set up a shortcut to turn VoiceOver on and off on iPhone and iPad

Apple provides an Accessibility Shortcut feature which can be used to turn on or off one or more accessibility tools. If it is used for just one tool, such as VoiceOver, then the shortcut turns the tool on or off with no further action. If more than one tool is added to the accessibility shortcut a menu appears from which you will need to select the tool you want to turn on or off. This poses a problem for severely sight impaired users who want to use the accessibility shortcut to control VoiceOver and one or more other tools. It's easy to turn VoiceOver off, because you will have VoiceOver to help you select it from the menu but when VoiceOver is off you won't know where to tap when the menu appears in order to turn VoiceOver back on. For this reason I strongly recommend that severely sight impaired users who want to control VoiceOver this way add only VoiceOver to the shortcut.

Go to Settings / Accessibility;

Scroll down to the final page and tap on Accessibility Shortcut.

Ensure that VoiceOver is selected and that no other items are selected.

Once this setting is made, VoiceOver can be turned on and off with a rapid triple click of the side or top button or on the home button for older devices. Some users find this action difficult and if the triple click on the side or top button is too slow then the device will probably be locked. If you are assisting someone else to set this up please check carefully that it's going to work reliably for them.

Back to home page

last reviewed 14 November 2025