Writing and sending email with VoiceOver on an iPad

Introduction

The simplest way to write a brief email is using Siri, which is described in the Siri essentials page on this website. However, dictating email to Siri can sometimes be error prone. I certainly don't recommend using Siri to compose long emails. The page you are reeding will describe how to write an email using the Mail app. This will allow you to type, dictate, handwrite or use Braille Screen Input to enter the message and its subject.  These text input methods can be used in any combination; you might dictate text that is easy for dictation to interpret and switch to typing for the more difficult words. You will also be able to use VoiceOver's text editing features to make corrections.

How to send an email on iPad using VoiceOver

Please note: iPadOS 18.4 has not yet fixed all VoiceOver issues for Mail on iPad which were introduced with iPadOS 18.0. Erratic VoiceOver focus behaviour may make it difficult to move easily to the next field of your email. I've tried to cover this in the notes below. I've also experienced problems using the section index which often gets stuck at an early letter of the alphabet. I have reported these issues to Apple.

The iPad mail app works a little differently from the Mail app on iPhones. In particular, it takes advantage of the larger iPad display when the iPad is held with the long edge uppermost, that is in landscape mode rather than portrait. With the display in landscape mode, both the message list and the current message are fully displayed on screen.  In portrait mode, the app displays either the list, overlaid at the left of the screen partly obscuring the current message, or the full current message. These notes describe using the Mail app with the iPad held in portrait mode. 

It is much easier to send email to addresses that are already in your contacts. I will assume here that anyone you want to send email to is already in your contacts. That way you won't need to do any typing or handwriting to enter full email addresses.

Open the Mail app and it will start how you last left it. You need to have an email message filling the screen before you can touch the Compose button to create a new message.  Touch near top right and will hear either "dismiss pop up" or "more" button.  If you hear "dismiss pop up", double tap to remove the list of email messages from the left of the screen.

Locate the "compose" button near top right of the screen.  It is to the left of the "more" button. Double tap anywhere on the screen to activate the compose button. You should hear VoiceOver speak "Too, text field, is editing". This means that the app is waiting for you to give it a Too address for the email. 

Your next step is a little odd.  You need to swipe left to locate the "add contact" button and then double tap.  If swiping left didn't land on "ad contact" try swiping right instead. It occasionally moves between iOS versions. This will display a pop up window showing all your contacts. If you don't have many contacts, just keep swiping right until you reach the contact and then double tap. That will add the contact to the Too field.

If you have a lot of contacts, you will need a different approach for finding the desired contact. As before, select add contact and double tap to activate it. Then swipe right until you hear VoiceOver speak "section index, adjustable". If swiping right gets stuck and doesn't reach the section index explore the upper half of the screen a centimetre or so from the right edge of the screen to locate the section index which is a vertical strip.  The table index is like the tabs on an old-style address book and the word "adjustable" lets you know that you can swipe down with one finger to move through the letters until you reach the letter you need for the contact's surname or first name. Your contacts can be listed in alphabetical order of first names or surnames. This can be set in Settings / Apps / Contacts. When the desired letter is reached in the index, swipe right and you will work your way through all the surnames or first names beginning with your chosen letter. Double tap when you have found the right contact.

So now we have the Too address filled in.

Now swipe right until you hear VoiceOver speak something like "subject, text field". If swiping right  gets stuck, locate the subject field by exploring the screen to locate it by sliding a finger down from a centimetre or two from the middle of the top edge of the screen. It's a little way below the too field you just edited.

Double tap and VoiceOver will speak "insertion point at end".

You now need to enter the Subject, which should be a brief indication of the purpose of the message.

When you have finished entering the subject of the email you need to move to the "message" part of the screen where you can enter the email message. Swipe right until you hear something like "Message body" or "Message content". As before, if swiping right doesn't reach the message, locate it by exploring below the subject.

Double tap and you will hear something like "Message body, text field, is editing, sent from my iPad"

The text, "Sent from my iPad" is the standard text that the mail app adds to the end of all your emails. You can change or remove this later at Settings / Apps / Mail / Signature but let's concentrate on sending the message for now.

Double tap to start entering the message.  You will probably hear "insertion point at end". This means that you aren't yet typing at the start of the message and that your text will appear after "sent from my iPad" which isn't ideal. You can always jump to the top or bottom of an item that you are editing with a double tap. Double tap now and you should hear "insertion point at start". If you don't hear that, then double tap repeatedly until you do.

When you have heard "insertion point at start" you are ready to enter the email message by your preferred input method.

When you have finished writing your message then it's time to find the send button near top right of your screen and then double tap to send your message.

You may, of course, make mistakes when you enter your email message. You can fix them if you spot them as you type or handwrite by using the delete key or swiping left with two fingers if you are using  handwriting. If you spot errors later, then you'll need to do some editing with VoiceOver.

A note on sending mail to multiple recipients.

When a recipient is entered, VoiceOver may move its focus to the Subject.  For each additional recipient you must swipe left repeatedly to locate the Too field and double tap to edit it again.  Then swipe left to locate the "add contact| button to add another contact. Alternatively, as you swipe left from the subject field you will also encounter a cc/bcc button that can be used to add a recipient for a  copy or blind copy. To do this, double tap on the cc/bcc button and you will probably hear "cc, text field, is editing". If you want to enter a contact as a cc swipe left repeatedly to located the "add contact" button and add the contact as for the Too field. If you want to add a bcc contact, swipe right after hearing "cc, text field, is editing" and you will hear "bcc, text field". Double tap to start editing the bcc field and swipe left repeatedly to find the add contact button as before.

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