Accessibility

Vision

The revolutionary iPhone also includes an equally revolutionary screen reader, and other innovative accessibility features that make it easier to use for those with impaired vision.

VoiceOver

The same VoiceOver screen reader made popular on the Mac is now a standard feature on iPhone 3GS. It’s the world’s first gesture-based screen reader, enabling you to enjoy the fun and simplicity of iPhone even if you can’t see the screen.

What makes VoiceOver on iPhone truly remarkable is that you control it using simple gestures that let you physically interact with items on screen. It’s easy to learn and fun to use. Instead of memorizing hundreds of keyboard commands, or endlessly pressing tiny arrow keys to find what you’re looking for, with VoiceOver, you simply touch the screen to hear a description of the item under your finger, then gesture with a double-tap, drag, or flick to control the phone.

VoiceOver delivers an experience unlike any screen reader you’ve ever used before. Traditional screen readers describe individual elements on the screen, but struggle to communicate where each element is located or provide information about adjoining objects. This contextual information is very important but typically filtered out by other screen readers. For example, “off-screen” models used by traditional screen readers to represent applications and web pages intentionally strip away contextual information and describe web pages as a list or menu of items. But with VoiceOver on iPhone 3GS, you’ll experience something entirely new.

Because VoiceOver works with iPhone’s touchscreen, you interact directly with objects on the screen and can naturally understand their location and context. So, when you touch the upper-left corner of the screen, you’ll hear what’s in the upper left corner of a web page, and as you drag your finger around the screen, you’ll learn what’s nearby, providing an amazing new sense of context and relationship between the items you hear. For many, VoiceOver on iPhone will provide, perhaps for the first time, a true sense of how things appear on screen, not just descriptions of what they are.

You’ll hear descriptions of every item on the screen, including status information such as battery level, Wi-Fi and cellular network signal levels, the cellular network provider, and time of day. It even lets you know when the display changes to landscape or portrait orientation, and when the screen is locked or unlocked.

The speaking rate is adjustable so you can set it to a speed that best suits your listening ability. VoiceOver uses distinctive sound effects to alert you when an application opens, when the screen is updated, when a message dialog appears, and more. And, when Voiceover is talking, the volume of background sounds and music are automatically lowered, “ducking” under the voice, so you can clearly hear what VoiceOver is telling you.

It speaks your language

VoiceOver includes built-in voices that speak 21 languages including Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Dutch, English (US), English (UK), English (Australian), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Thai, Turkish.

Getting started

VoiceOver is built right into iPhone 3GS. There’s nothing extra to purchase or install. All you need is iPhone 3GS, iTunes 8.2 or later, and a Mac or PC. You can activate your iPhone and enable VoiceOver without sighted assistance using iTunes with a compatible screen reader like VoiceOver included in Mac OS X and GW-Micro Window-Eyes® for Windows XP and Windows Vista (sold separately). When you activate iPhone using iTunes, you can enable VoiceOver on iPhone to start using it right away. Sighted users can also enable VoiceOver for you directly on iPhone using the Accessibility menu in the Settings application.

How it works

With VoiceOver enabled, you’ll use a different but simple set of gestures to control iPhone. For example, instead of tapping to activate a button, tap the button to hear a description of it, double-tap to activate it, and swipe up or down to adjust a slider.

When an item on the screen is selected, a black rectangle called the VoiceOver cursor appears around it. The VoiceOver cursor is displayed for the benefit of sighted users with whom you may be sharing your phone. When you prefer privacy, VoiceOver includes a screen curtain that turns off the display so no one can read it without your knowledge.

In addition to touching and dragging around the screen, you can also flick left and right to move the VoiceOver cursor precisely to the next or previous item on the screen—no matter how big or small it is. By flicking, you have precise control of what you hear even when it might otherwise be difficult to place your finger on it.

Two iPhones. The iPhone in the background shows the home screen. A dialog bubble indicates VoiceOver speaking the hint: Mail. One new item. Double-tap to open. The iPhone in the foreground shows the Camera application with a beach ball in the viewfinder. The VoiceOver cursor is on the mode switch button and a dialog bubble indicates VoiceOver speaking the hint: Photo button. Switches camera to video.

Entering Text

When you’re typing text, such as an email message or a note, VoiceOver echoes each character on the keyboard as you touch it, and again to confirm when you enter it. You can also have VoiceOver speak each completed word instead of and in addition to individual characters as you type them. A flick up or down while typing moves the insertion point cursor left and right within the text so you can edit a word just as easily and precisely as typing a new word.

Two images side by side. The first shows a text-suggestion bubble containing the word restaurant below the partially typed word r e s t a u. The other shows a text bubble containing the word great above the misspelled word g r w a t.

To help you type more quickly and accurately, iPhone features word prediction and suggests the correct spelling when you type a word incorrectly. With Speak Auto-text enabled, you’ll hear a sound effect and the suggested word spoken automatically. You can just keep typing to ignore it, or press the space key to have iPhone type it for you.

The Rotor

Two fingers touching a iPhone display and a counter-clockwise arrow indicating how to enter a rotate gesture.

VoiceOver features an innovative new virtual control called a “rotor.” Turning the rotor— by rotating two fingers on the screen as if you were turning an actual dial — changes the way VoiceOver moves through a document based on a setting you choose. For example, a flick up or down might move through text word by word. But when you choose the “character” setting, each time you flick up or down VoiceOver will move through the text character by character — perfect when you’re proofreading or editing text.

You can also use the rotor to navigate web pages. When you’re on a web page, the rotor contains the names of common items, such as headers, links, form elements, images, and more. You select a setting, then flick up and down to move to the previous or next occurrence of that item on the page, skipping over items in between.

Applications

VoiceOver works with all of the built-in applications that come with iPhone 3GS, such as Phone, iPod, iTunes, Mail, Safari, and Maps. So, you can place and receive calls, surf the web, text and email your friends, check your stocks and the weather, and much, much more. Apple is also working with iPhone software developers so they can make their applications VoiceOver compatible. Learn more

Voice Control

In addition to gestures, you can use your voice to play music and make a phone call. Just press and hold the home button, listen for the audio prompt, and speak the name of the artist, album, or playlist you want to hear. You can pause, play, change tracks, even shuffle your music.

When you want to make a call, speak the name or telephone number of the person you want to call. iPhone 3GS understands 21 different languages. Learn more

Zoom

Two iPhones. The iPhone in the background is displaying the weather application. The iPhone in the foreground shows the weather application zoomed 200%

While many iPhone applications let you zoom in and out specific elements such as images in Mail, or webpage columns in Safari, Zoom lets you magnify the entire screen of any application you’re using to help you see what’s on the display. Zoom can be enabled on iPhone 3GS using iTunes when you’re setting up iPhone, for yourself or someone else, or later, using the Accessibility menu in the Settings application on iPhone.

Zoom works everywhere, including the Home, Unlock, and Spotlight screens—even with applications you purchase from the App store.

Two iPhones. The iPhone in the background is displaying the Accessibility Settings screen. The iPhone in the foreground shows the Accessibility Settings screen in reverse video.

A simple double-tap with three fingers instantly zooms in and out 200% and you can double-tap and drag three fingers to dynamically adjust the magnification between 100% and 500%. Even when zoomed, you can continue using all of the familiar flick, pinch, tap and other iPhone gestures to run your favorite applications. Zoom can also be used with white-on-black (reverse video) and speak auto-text.

White On Black

For those who need or prefer higher contrast, iPhone 3GS provides an option to change the display to White On Black. This reverse video affect works in all applications including the Home, Unlock, and Spotlight screens and can be used with Zoom and VoiceOver.

Speak Auto-text

When typing, iPhone suggests a word before you finish typing it or a correction when a word is misspelled. Speak Auto-text speaks these suggestions so you can hear them when they’re presented. When zoomed, for example, the suggestion might not be visible on screen, but you can hear and accept it without seeing it. If you’re using VoiceOver, you won’t have to interrupt your typing and touch the suggestion to hear it. Speak Auto-text can be enabled even when you’re not using VoiceOver or Zoom.

Tactile Buttons

iPhone includes a few, easily discernible physical buttons used to control the phone: the Sleep/Wake button, located on the top edge; the Ring/Silent switch and volume-control buttons, located on the upper-left edge; and the Home button, centered below the display.

Giant Fonts For Mail Messages

For improved email readability, you can increase the default font size of email text from Medium (the default) to Large, Extra-large, or Giant.

iPhone earbuds with clickable microphone built into the cable

iPhone Stereo Headset

iPhone comes with a stereo headset with a high-performance microphone built into the cable. Plug it into the standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack and the headset lets you control music playback and answer and end calls by clicking the built-in remote control button.

Several add-on products are also available to work with iPhone that can help those with hearing disabilities, including a hearing aid-compatible induction ear loop from TecEar, wireless remote headset from Oticon, and others.

Hands-Free Speakerphone

Enjoy hands-free communication using the built-in speakerphone, which you can also use to listen to Visual Voicemail, music, podcasts, and video.

Audible, Visible, And Vibrating Alerts

Turn the ringer on, and iPhone delivers both audible and visual alerts. You can activate alerts for phone calls, text messages, incoming and sent mail, and calendar events. iPhone also offers an audio option confirming keyboard clicks. You can even set incoming calls to display a full-screen image or photo of the caller.

In silent mode, iPhone vibrates instead of playing a tone. To ensure that you never miss a notification, you can also have iPhone vibrate and play an audio alert.

Downloadable, Assignable Ringtones

You can assign distinctive ringtones to individuals in your contacts list, using the ringtone as an audible caller ID. Visit the iTunes Store to create, purchase, and download additional ringtones of your favorite songs (sold separately).

A visual representation of a ringtone sound wave as it might appear in iTunes while it's being created.

User Guide In Accessible HTML

The iPhone User Guide is provided online in HTML format designed with accessibility in mind. You can read the guide using your favorite screen reader and web browser on your Mac and PC, and using Safari on iPhone with VoiceOver.