VoiceOver practice

You may find some VoiceOver gestures a little tricky at first. Fortunately, there’s a practice feature where you can develop your gesture skills without the risk of doing something unintended on your iPhone or iPad. Some people with useful vision may use both Zoom and VoiceOver. Please be aware that VoiceOver has different three finger multi-tap gestures if Zoom is enabled.  Also, the VoiceOver practice feature described below doesn't work reliably if Zoom is enabled so please ensure that Zoom is not enabled before beginning a practice session.

To start the practice session, first ensure that VoiceOver is turned on and then tap the screen twice rapidly with four fingers. Yes, I can almost hear the groan from here! A four finger double tap isn't easy, especially on an iPhone. It certainly isn't Apple's most inspired choice. If you get the four finger double tap right, VoiceOver will announce “Starting Help”, or something similar. If you don’t hear this, keep trying the four finger double tap until you do. You may find it helpful to line up your four fingers by resting four fingertips on a table before you try the double tap and it may also help to hold the phone in landscape orientation. An alternative to using four fingers from one hand is to place the phone or tablet on a table and use two fingers from both hands simultaneously. 

An alternative to the four finger double tap is to ask Siri to open VoiceOver settings and then swipe from left to right until you hear "VoiceOver practice" and then double tap with one finger.  This will be fine if you are already able to perform swipe and double tap gestures reliably but obviously isn't going to be easy otherwise.  If necessary, please enlist help from a sighted helper or anyone who is already proficient with VoiceOver. Instruct Siri to open VoiceOver settings and then ask your helper to tap on VoiceOver practice and then double tap rapidly with one finger.

The four finger double tap and VoiceOver settings methods of starting VoiceOver practice start slightly different versions of VoiceOver practice. If you started VoiceOver Help with a 4 finger double tap, VoiceOver will begin by speaking "VoiceOver help". When VoiceOver has finished speaking its introduction, the iPhone or iPad will wait for you to try a gesture and will then speak the gesture you’ve performed and tell you what it does. The screen won't have changed but you won't interact with the screen at all while you practice gestures. Always wait for VoiceOver to stop speaking before trying a gesture. If you started VoiceOver practice from VoiceOver settings, then it is a little different. The screen changes to a practice screen and VoiceOver will probably land on a "general, button" and tell you that it is selected.  This is the choice that you need for general gesture practice.  There will be another button for Braille practice.  Assuming that you want to practice general gestures, leave the general button selected and tap with one finger near the centre of the screen.  VoiceOver will speak a brief introduction. Wait for this to finish.

Start your practice with a tap with one finger near the centre of the screen. That's just a very brief touch or tap. The lightest of touches will be fine. Force isn't required! It's always best to perform your gestures near the centre of the screen to avoid your fingers straying on to the frame which surrounds the screen on some devices. Remember always to wait for VoiceOver to stop speaking before you attempt your next gesture.

Try swipe gestures next.  These are a bit like flicking dust off your jacket.  Your finger or fingers need to brush past the centre of the screen ensuring that fingers are in motion when the screen is first touched and also still in motion when the finger or fingers are lifted off the screen. Try swipes right left, up and down with one finger. Then try two finger swipes up and down.  Also try three finger swipes up, down, right and left.

Finally try double taps with one, two and three fingers.

More advanced learners may also want to practice the rotor gesture here.

When you’ve finished with your practice session, double tap with four fingers again to stop the help session or perform a two finger scrub, that is draw a letter z rapidly with two fingers. On devices with a Home button, VoiceOver practice can also be ended by clicking the Home button.

If you find it difficult to perform double tap gestures reliably, it may help to change the  double tap time out in VoiceOver settings.  By default, it is set to .25 seconds, that is one quarter of a second.  If you need the phone to respond to slower double taps then the time can be set to a value as high as .5  which is half a second. You may need sighted help or help from a VoiceOver expert to do this. If you get help from a sighted helper first ask Siri to open VoiceOver settings and then ask  Siri to turn VoiceOver off and ask your helper to change the double tap timeout setting for you in VoiceOver settings. Then ask Siri to turn VoiceOver on again.

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