Using an iPhone or iPad with a bluetooth keyboard

Bluetooth keyboards for blind and low vision users

Blind iPhone and iPad users can control their devices fully with an external keyboard in the same way as using a computer with a screen reader such as Jaws.. As an alternative to full keyboard control, some users prefer to  continue using touch gestures and use the bluetooth keyboard as an alternative to typing text with the on-screen keyboard. These notes are written for VoiceOver users but low vision users can, of course, also use external keyboards and may find it helpful to turn on VoiceOver in some contexts to take advantage of spoken feedback and convenient editing commands. 

You will first need to acquire a bluetooth keyboard. Most bluetooth keyboards will be suitable. Blind and low vision users who are skilled touch typists should be able to use most good keyboards. Low vision users with limited touch typing skills may require a keyboard with large print on its keys. Read on for some recommended keyboards.

Apple Magic keyboards

Apple sells several versions of the Magic Keyboard. The models with TouchID  are designed for use only with Macs with Apple silicon; these are not designed for iPhone or iPad use. For iPhone or iPad select either the Apple Magic keyboard or the Apple Magic keyboard with keypad. Both versions have standard sized keys at standard spacing and are suitable for touch typing. The Magic keyboard is the smaller of the two. The Magic keyboard with numeric keypad has the keypad and extra keys which will be familiar to PC users. Some users may prefer the larger keyboard; the keypad and extra keys may be convenient for some purposes, especially if they are using full VoiceOver keyboard control since the extra keys expand the range of commands available. The smaller Magic keyboard is perfect for general typing and is the Apple keyboard that I use with my iPhone or iPad . All Apple Magic keyboards have a built-in rechargeable battery with long battery life.

Large print bluetooth keyboards

Users who aren't confident of keyboard layout and who have some useful vision may prefer keyboards with large print letters, numbers and symbols on the keys. The Bluetooth Wireless Large Print Keyboard from Techsilver looks to be a sound choice at a very good price. I have no personal experience of this keyboard but I have had very positive feedback from one owner. I'd welcome any additional feedback from people who try it. It is a standard sized keyboard with very large and clear key labels.  It is available in four colour variations, black lettering on yellow keys, black lettering on white keys, white lettering on black keys and yellow lettering on black keys. I've included an illustration of the white on black model below. These keyboards run off 2 AAA batteries with a very long battery life. The keyboard layout appears to be a close match to Apple Magic keyboard layout. The keyboard illustrated below has the at and double quote symbols reversed from the standard Apple British English positions.

Logitech K380 keyboard

A cheaper alternative which is worth considering is the Logitech K380, available from Amazon. This is a standard sized keyboard and is excellent for touch typists.  It may be paired with up to three different devices so, for example, you could use just one keyboard for your iPhone and iPad. The keys for switching between devices are clearly marked and easy to locate.  The keyboard operates off 2 AAA batteries with very long battery life. There are two potential disadvantages to this keyboard.  For users with some useful sight, the size and clarity of the key markings is poor. Also, it is a dual-purpose Apple and Windows keyboard and the positions of a few special keys are not to Apple's standard. This will only be a problem if, like me, you switch between a Logitech and Apple keyboard. For normal typing, all keys are in the same positions as on an Apple Magic keyboard.  Colour variations may be available, but I've only found the dark blue version on Amazon.

Keyboard cases

Apple, and many other manufacturers, offer cases for iPad and iPad Pro which incorporate keyboards. These come close to converting a tablet to a laptop. These may be convenient for some low vision users. VoiceOver users may find it inconvenient to perform VoicceOver gestures on a screen fixed to a keyboard and may prefer to keep the screen and keyboard separate. Keyboard cases need to be thin and light and there are likely to be some compromises on the feel of the keyboard. 

Using a bluetooth keyboard for text entry and editing

Although it is possible to perform every task on an iPhone or iPad using just a bluetooth keyboard, you may prefer to use a mix of Siri, touch gestures and keyboard commands. Some users may prefer to use touch gestures for most activities and switch to the bluetooth keyboard only when they would otherwise have to use the on-screen keyboard. Here's what you need to know about entering and editing text.

Selecting the amount of spoken feedback from VoiceOver

First, you need to decide how much spoken feedback you want from VoiceOver as you type on your keyboard. Go to VoiceOver settings and swipe right to the typing button and double tap. Swipe right to the typing feedback button and double tap. Swipe right until you reach the hardware keyboards heading. Select one of the following choices which are: nothing, character, words, or characters and words. Confident touch typists will probably prefer to select nothing or perhaps words. 

The modifier keys

Some of the keyboard commands given here are keyboard equivalents of VoiceOver touch gestures. Most of these require the VoiceOver modifier key or keys to be held down while another key or keys are tapped.  The default modifier requires two keys to be held down - the control and option keys, which are the second and third keys along the bottom row from the left on the Apple Magic Keyboard without a numeric keypad, the smaller of the two Magic Keyboard sizes. On the Logitech K380 keyboard they are the first and third keys. The location will vary with other keyboards. There is an alternative modifier which requires just one key to be held down, the caps lock key, which is two keys above the bottom left key on most keyboards. Your choice can be set in Settings / Accessibility / VoiceOver / typing. where you may select one or both options to be available to you.  

I have followed Apple's convention here and use the two capital letters, V and O, to indicate when the modifier needs to be held down. For example, the keyboard equivalent of a double tap is to hold down the modifier key or keys and tap the space bar. This is written as VO - space, the capital letters V and O, a hyphen and then the word space.

Apple offers a feature called QuickNav which permits the omission of the VO keys for some commands.  I do not describe QuickNav here; you will find details in Apple's user guides.

I have listed a selection of keyboard VoiceOver gesture equivalents in the keyboard commands section below. A complete list may be found at Settings / Accessibility / VoiceOver / Commands / Keyboard Shortcuts. If you are an experienced VoiceOver user you may wish to reassign some commands here to make it easier to use your favourite commands.

Exploring the keyboard layout

If you aren't sure where to find a character or what a specific special key does, then keyboard help is at hand.  You can put your keyboard into help mode. In help mode, VoiceOver speaks the function of each key or key combination but does nothing else. This lets you familiarise yourself with the keyboard layout and can also be used during typing to help locate a tricky special character.

To enter keyboard help mode use VO-K . VoiceOver will speak "starting help". You can end the help session by tapping the Escape key on your keyboard, which is the key at top left. In help mode, press a key or combination of keys to learn its function. For example, if you are uncertain of the location of the percent sign, hold down Shift and you will hear VoiceOver speak "shift". Continue holding shift and explore the top row of keys until you hear "percent". In keyboard help mode, none of the keys you press will be acted on. The keyboard will return to normal when the Escape key at top left is pressed.

Keyboard commands for entering, checking, and editing text

These commands will work whenever you are entering or editing text. I have omitted some commands and the full list is in Apple's user guide. Some may work in other contexts. Please note that most of these commands will work only if a feature called Quick Nav is turned off.  Quick Nav seems occasionally to get turned on by iOS or iPadOS. Before you start using these commands, check the status of Quick Nav by pressing the right and left arrow keys together. This toggles Quick Nav. Quick Nav off is indicated by a falling tone and Quick Nav on is indicated by a rising tone.

List of editing commands begins:

To go forward or back one character, use right arrow or left arrow.

To go forward or back one word, use option-right arrow or option-left arrow.

To go up or down one line, use up arrow or down arrow.

To go to the beginning or end of the paragraph (note that a paragraph is ended with a newline character), use option-up arrow or option-down arrow.

To go to the previous or next paragraph, use option-up arrow or option-down arrow.

To go to the beginning or end of the text field, use command-up arrow or command-down arrow.

To select text as you move, use shift + any of the insertion point moving tools above.

To select all text, use command-A.

To copy, cut or paste the selected text, use command-C, command-X or command-V.

To speak text from the current position, use VO-A.

To speak text from the top of the screen, use VO-B.

To pause or resume VoiceOver speech, tap the control key. (This is the second key from the left on the bottom row of the small Apple Magic Keyboard and the first on the Logitech K380  keyboard.)

Entering accents and changing keyboard language

Some accents may be typed using an English keyboard. Hold down the option key and tap one of the characters below. Follow this by typing the character to be accented. As an example, to type ö, o umlaut, hold down the option key and tap U and then release all keys and tap o.

Acute accent (for example, é): option-E 

Grave accent (for example, è): option-`, the character that is positioned left of Z on most keyboards.

Tilde (for example, ñ): option-N

Diaeresis or umlaut (for example, ü): option-U

Circumflex (for example, ê): option-I

If you have more than one keyboard language installed on your iPhone or iPad, you may switch the characters associated with the keys on your bluetooth keyboard to match any of the keyboards you have installed. If you first switch the on-screen keyboard to the language you want to type in and then connect your bluetooth keyboard, the bluetooth keyboard wil operate with the same key layout as the on-screen keyboard.

Alternatively, on the bluetooth keyboard, you may cycle through your installed keyboard languages by holding down the control key and tapping space.

Using an external keyboard for full keyboard control of an iPhone or iPad with VoiceOver turned on 

Blind users can take full control of an iPhone or iPad using a bluetooth keyboard. Two sets of keyboard commands are available and can be used in any combination. The first set is the VoiceOver keyboard commands.  These enable visually impaired people to perform a keyboard equivalent of VoiceOver gestures. The full list of  VoiceOver keyboard commands for iPhone and iPad can be found in the VoiceOver section of the Settings app at Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Commands > Keyboard shortcuts. Although this item is named rather confusingly as keyboard shortcuts in the Settings app it is in fact the full list of VoiceOver keyboard commands.

As with other keyboard driven screen readers such as Jaws, the full list of commands is very long and most users will get by with a few of the simpler commands.  

Here are several you may find useful:

To select the next item, use VO-right arrow, the equivalent of swipe right.

To select the previous item, use VO-left arrow, the equivalent of swipe left.

To activate the selected item, use VO-space, the equivalent of double tap.

To speak from the current position, use VO-A, the equivalent of a two finger swipe down).

To pause or resume VoiceOver speech, tap the control key. (This is the second key from the left on the bottom row of the small Apple Magic Keyboard and the first on the Logitech keyboard.)

To go back to the previous screen, use the escape key on its own. Escape is the top left key. This is the keyboard equivalent of locating and double tapping a back button or performing a two finger scrub gesture.

To return to the home screen, use VO-H.

To perform a VoiceOver swipe up or down, use VO-up arrow or down arrow.

To open the item chooser, use VO-I.

The second set of commands is keyboard shortcuts that are provided to enable all users to perform specific tasks in one simple keyboard step. Some, like the shortcuts for copy and paste work system wide and others work only within specific apps; an example would be command-N to begin a new email message in the Mail app. These keyboard shortcuts are similar to shortcuts found in other computer systems but may, of course, differ from ones that you already know.

Here's a list of shortcuts that should work in most contexts, even when VoiceOver is not turned on.

Go home: command-H 

Search: command-space

Switch apps: command-tab, hold the command key and tap tab repeatedly until you hear the desired app and then release all keys 

Select All: command-A

Cut: command-X

Copy: command-C

Paste: command-V

Bold: command-B

Italics: command-I

On iPad, shortcuts that work within specific apps can be discovered by holding down the command key within the app. This does not work on an iPhone.

Below is a link to a page describing keyboard VoiceOver control of the Mail app on iPhone and iPad. I may add further apps later.

Mail with a bluetooth keyboard for iPhone and iPad VoiceOver users

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