Typing with VoiceOver on iPhone and iPad

Introduction to VoiceOver typing on iPhone and iPad

Typing using the on-screen keyboard with VoiceOver is the aspect of VoiceOver that most people find hardest to master. But for people who have a clear image of the layout of a QWERTY keyboard in their heads it can be an extremely fast and effective way to enter text accurately. It will be more difficult for people who are not familiar with the layout of a QUERTY keyboard who will need to learn that layout first in order to achieve a satisfactory typing speed and that may not be easy. Dictation and handwriting are available as alternatives to typing and may be the best option for some users.

The keyboard layout can be explored by sliding a finger over the keys and listening to the letters, numbers and symbols being spoken. This may help some people to familiarise themselves with the layout. Swiping right and left moves from key to key along rows of keys and moves up or down between the rows when the end of a row is reached, but this gives no feeling for the key's actual location. 

VoiceOver offers different ways  to type. So-called "standard typing" is often best for VoiceOver learners. This involves locating a character and then double tapping to enter it. A confident VoiceOver user may find "touch typing" lets them type more quickly than standard typing. In touch typing, a finger is slid over the keyboard until the desired letter is heard and then lifted to type the letter. If you hit the letter accurately first time then it's just like normal sighted typing. If you don't quite get it right you just have to slide a little to find the letter and then lift. Touch typing would be perfect for a learner who still has sufficient vision to see the keyboard.

The on-screen keyboard is displayed at the bottom of the screen whenever it’s your turn to enter information. Note that the on-screen keyboard has slight variations between apps and between tasks and the keyboard layout on iPhone and iPad also differ slightly.

Typing using VoiceOver's Standard Typing

Typing in VoiceOver using the default Standard Typing is a simple concept. It’s just rather hard to do at first and very hard indeed if you don't know the layout of a standard QWERTY keyboard!

Slide your finger over the keyboard until you hear VoiceOver announce the key you want.  Immediately lift your finger and after a short pause, VoiceOver will also speak the Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta version of the character so you can be sure you have the right letter. Sometimes, especially if you have imperfect hearing, it is difficult to distinguish characters like a spoken :M and N and the Mike and November versions can be helpful. Once VoiceOver has spoken the name of the key you want and you’ve lifted your finger off the key, double tap with one finger anywhere to type the character. You don't need to wait for the alpha bravo version of the letter to be spoken if you are sure you have the right key.

The same technique, locate, lift and double tap is used for keys like the shift key, to change from lower to upper case letters, the delete key to delete the last character you typed and the "numbers" key which switches to the numbers and symbols keyboard.

If you prefer, you can swipe right and left to move through all the keys on the keyboard until you reach the character you want. When I used standard typing I tried to land on the correct key but, if I didn't, I often swiped right or left to reach the desired key if I landed on the correct row of the keyboard.

VoiceOver will speak each letter as you type it and will speak the word you have completed when you type a space or punctuation.

Double tapping on the  numbers key, which is at bottom left of the keyboard, will switch to the numbers and symbols keyboard. The top row is mainly numbers and the remainder of the keyboard is occupied by symbols. The numbers key itself will be replaced by a letters key to  return to the letters keyboard. On the numbers keyboard, the shift key is replaced by a symbols key which displays an additional set of symbols including the # (hash) symbol. 

Typing using VoiceOver's touch typing

Touch typing could be the best option for a confident VoiceOver user who knows their way around a QWERTY keyboard. It would definitely be the best option for someone using VoiceOver who has sufficient vision to see the keyboard clearly enough to read the keys. It can be faster than standard typing but requires excellent positional awareness. With touch typing you should rest a finger briefly on the desired key to hear its name spoken  and then lift it to enter the character. If you miss the desired key, you must keep your finger on the keyboard and slide it to the correct key and then lift your finger. If you can see the keyboard clearly, just tap the keys as you would without VoiceOver. There is no equivalent of standard typing's swiping along a row of keys. In touch typing, the bottom right key on the keyboard behaves differently from all the other keys. This is usually a return key but may be replaced with other keys, such as a Go key. This key must be selected and double tapped to operate.

Changing typing style and spoken feedback in typing with VoiceOver

Your choice of typing style can be made at:

Settings / Accessibility / VoiceOver / Typing / Typing Style.

As well as standard and touch typing, there is a Direct Touch Typing option which effectively turns off VoiceOver for the keyboard. Most blind and low vision users won't want to use this option.

Phonetic, alpha bravo, feedback can be controlled at:

Settings / Accessibility / VoiceOver / Typing / Phonetic Feedback.

Your choices are "off", "Character & Phonetics" and "Phonetics only". If you select "off" you will hear only the letter name spoken.

You can also control the amount of spoken feedback you receive as you enter characters at:

Settings/ Accessibility / VoiceOver / Typing / Typing Feedback.

Your choices are "Nothing", "Characters", "Words" and "Characters and Words".

Words will be spoken when you enter a space or punctuation. With "nothing" selected you will stil hear the character spoken when you touch the key but it won't be spoken again when you enter the character.

Additional typing options which aren't specific to VoiceOver

There is a handy shortcut for typing a full stop followed by a space at the end of a word. Enter two spaces and they will be replaced automatically by a full stop and a space. This is particularly handy on the iPhone since it avoids the need to switch keyboards when entering a full stop.

As standard, you may have a feature called auto-correction switched on.  This will attempt to fix any spelling mistakes when you press the space key or punctuation to end a word. This won't always correct to the word you intended, so listen carefully to hear what your text has been corrected to.  If you don't like this feature, then it may be turned off in Settings/ General/ Keyboard.

If you like to use Caps Lock to type a sequence of letters in capitals then this feature needs to be enabled in Settings/ General/ Keyboard. Once it is set, enter caps lock by selecting the shift key and then triple tap instead of double tapping.

There are many additional keyboard features, even including accented characters, which I have omitted here for simplicity.  You will find the full story in Apple's iPhone and iPad user guides.

Back to navigation page