VoiceOver
VoiceOver on iPad
VoiceOver is a gesture-based screen reader that lets you enjoy iPad even if you don’t see the screen. With VoiceOver enabled, just triple-click the Home button to access it wherever you are in iOS. Hear a description of everything happening on your screen, from battery level to who’s calling to which app your finger is on. You can also adjust the speaking rate and pitch to suit you.
VoiceOver in Apps
Because VoiceOver is integrated in iOS, it works with all the built-in iPad apps. You can create customised labels for buttons in any app — including third-party apps. And Apple works with the iOS developer community to make even more apps compatible with VoiceOver.
VoiceOver on iPad
VoiceOver Gestures
You can control VoiceOver using a simple set of gestures. Touch or drag your finger around the screen and VoiceOver tells you what’s there. Tap a button to hear a description, then double-tap to select. Or flick left and right to move from one element to the next. When you interact with an element, a black rectangle appears around it so sighted users can follow along. When you prefer privacy, you can activate a screen curtain to turn off the display completely, but still hear all that VoiceOver has to say.
VoiceOver Text Input
With VoiceOver enabled, each character on the keyboard is read aloud as you touch it, and again when you enter it. A flick up or down moves the cursor so you can edit precisely. To help you type more quickly and accurately, iOS supports multiple character input methods — including handwriting — and corrects misspelled words. Enable Speak Auto-text and you hear a sound effect and the suggested word spoken. Keep typing to ignore it, or tap the space bar to have your iPad type it for you.
VoiceOver and the Rotor
VoiceOver features a virtual control called the rotor. Turning the rotor — by rotating two fingers on the screen as if you were turning an actual dial — lets you efficiently move through a web page or document. When you’re on a web page, turn the rotor to hear settings like “headings”, “links” and “images”. Then flick to choose how you navigate the page. For example, you can skip from one heading to the next.
VoiceOver Braille Keyboard
VoiceOver includes system-wide support for braille chords in 6- and 8-dot braille, enabling direct braille entry without the need for a physical braille keyboard. The braille keyboard is available in the rotor, so you can use it to type text, unlock your iPad, launch apps, and find content in apps like Music.
VoiceOver and Braille Displays
iPad is fully compatible with more than 70 refreshable braille displays. You can connect a Bluetooth wireless braille display to read VoiceOver output, including contracted and uncontracted braille, and equations using Nemeth Code. And braille displays with input keys can be used to control your iPad when VoiceOver is turned on.
VoiceOver and Pronunciation Editor
The Pronunciation Editor allows you to create a list of words or phrases, and the phonetic ways you want them to be pronounced by VoiceOver. These words and phrases will then be read aloud with your preferred pronunciation in documents, messages, web pages and other text.
Display Accommodations
Invert Colours on iPad
iOS lets you invert colours, reduce white point, enable greyscale or choose from a range of colour filters to support different forms of colour blindness or other vision challenges. You can select a common preset or fine-tune the colour tint and hue to customise the display settings to work for you. And once you set your filters, the settings apply to everything that appears on your iPad.
Font Adjustments
When you activate Larger Dynamic Type, the text inside a range of apps — including Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages, Music, Notes and Settings, and even some third-party apps — is converted to a larger, easier-to-read size. And you can choose bold text to make the text heavier across a range of built-in applications.
Invert Colours on iPad
Zoom
Zoom is a built-in screen magnifier that works wherever you are in iOS. And it works with all apps from the App Store. Turn Zoom on for full-screen view or picture-in-picture view — allowing you to see the zoomed area in a separate window while keeping the rest of the screen at its native size. You can adjust the magnification between 100 and 1,500 per cent, and access multiple filter options in either view. While you’re zoomed in, you can use all the familiar gestures to navigate your iPad. And Zoom works with VoiceOver, so you can better see — and hear — what’s happening on your screen.
Audio Descriptions
Watch movies on your iPad, with detailed audio descriptions of every scene. Movies with audio descriptions are displayed with the AD icon in the iTunes Store.
Magnifier
Magnifier on iPad
Magnifier works like a digital magnifying glass. It uses the camera on your iPad to increase the size of anything you point it at, so you can see the details more clearly. Use the flash to light the object, adjust filters to help you differentiate colours or snap a photo to get a static close-up.
Speak Screen
If you have a hard time reading the text on your iPad, use Speak Screen to read your emails, iMessages, web pages and books. Turn on Speak Screen and swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers, or just tell Siri to Speak Screen and have all the content on the page read back to you. You can adjust the voice’s dialect and speaking rate, and have words, sentences, or words within sentences highlighted as they’re being read.
Magnifier on iPad
Siri
Siri, the intelligent assistant from Apple, helps you do the things you do every day.* Siri can send messages, place phone calls, schedule meetings, and even turn on and off VoiceOver, Guided Access and Invert Colours. And because Siri is integrated with VoiceOver, you can ask where the nearest sushi restaurant is and hear the answer read out loud.
Dictation
Dictation lets you talk where you would type. Tap the microphone button on the keyboard, say what you want to write, and your iPad converts your words (and numbers and characters) into text. So it’s easy to type an email, note or URL — without typing at all.
Resources
Support
Apple Accessibility Support
Learn more at Apple Accessibility Support
User Guides
iPad User Guide (Tagged HTML)
Learn more with the iPad User Guide in tagged HTML
iPad User Guide (iBooks)
Open the iPad User Guide in the iBooks Store
External Resources
The Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Explore instructional videos with tips on using vision accessibility features in iOS.
Learn more about the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired
AppleVis.com
Join a community of Apple product users who are blind or have low vision.
Learn more about AppleVis.com
VIPhone Discussion List
Connect with a community of people using VoiceOver and other Apple products.
Learn more about the VIPhone Discussion List
Mac-cessibility Network
Get information on the use of Apple products by people who are blind or have low vision.
Learn more about the Mac-cessibility Network
Developer Resources
Apple Accessibility for Developers
Resources to help developers make their apps more accessible.
Learn more about Apple Accessibility for Developers