The following information has been compiled, edited, and formatted for those reading with either a screen reader, screen magnifier, or refreshable Braille device.
iPhone 3G S Accessibility Features
In addition to the many features that make iPhone easy to use for everyone, the accessibility features available on iPhone 3G S are designed to make it easier for users with visual, auditory, or other physical disabilities to use iPhone. The iPhone 3G S accessibility features include:
VoiceOver
Zoom
White on Black
Mono Audio
Speak Auto-text
With the exception of VoiceOver, these accessibility features work with all iPhone applications, including third-party applications you download from the App Store. VoiceOver works with all applications that come preinstalled on iPhone. In addition, third-party developers can use the iPhone Accessibility API to make their applications accessible for VoiceOver users.
Individual accessibility features can be turned on and off in the Accessibility settings on iPhone 3G S. You can also turn accessibility features on or off in iTunes when iPhone 3G S is connected to your computer.
Turn accessibility features on or off in iTunes:
Connect iPhone 3G S to your computer.
In iTunes, select iPhone in the sidebar.
In the Summary pane, click Configure Universal Access in the Options section.
Select the accessibility features that you want to use and click OK.
IMPORTANT: VoiceOver changes the gestures used to control iPhone. Once VoiceOver is turned on, you have to use VoiceOver gestures to operate iPhone—even for turning VoiceOver off again to resume standard operation.
Turn VoiceOver on or off:
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility - VoiceOver and tap the VoiceOver On/Off switch.
NOTE: You cannot use VoiceOver and Zoom at the same time.
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility - VoiceOver, and tap the Speak Hints On/Off switch. Spoken hints are turned on by default.
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility - VoiceOver, and adjust the Speaking Rate slider.
You can choose what kind of feedback you get when you type. You can set VoiceOver to speak characters, words, both, or nothing. If you choose to hear both characters and words, VoiceOver speaks each character as you type it, then speaks the whole word when you finish it by entering a space or punctuation.
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility - VoiceOver - Typing Feedback, then choose Characters, Words, Characters and Words, or Nothing.
In Settings, choose General - International - Language, then select a language and tap OK. Some languages may be influenced by the Region Local setting. In Settings, choose General - International - Region Format and select the format.
NOTE: VoiceOver does not work with Hebrew, Arabic, or Coatian.
When VoiceOver is turned on, the standard touchscreen gestures have different results. These and additional gestures allow you to move around the screen and to control the individual elements when they’re selected. VoiceOver gestures include using two and three fingers to tap or flick. For best results using two- and three-finger gestures, relax and let your fingers touch the screen naturally.
You can use many different techniques to enter VoiceOver gestures. For example, you can enter a two-finger tap using two fingers from one hand, or one finger from each hand. You can also use your thumbs. Try different techniques to discover which works best for you.
Following is a summary of some of the VoiceOver gestures.
Tap: Speak item.
Flick right or left: Select next or previous item.
Flick up or down: Depends on Rotor Control setting. See Rotor Control.
Two-finger tap: Stop speaking current item.
Two-finger flick up: Read all from top of screen.
Two-finger flick down: Read all from current position.
Three-finger flick up or down: Scroll one page at a time.
Three-finger flick right or left: Go to next or previous page (such as Home screen, Stocks, Safari).
Three-finger tap: Speak the scroll status (which page or rows are visible).
Double-tap: Activate selected item.
Touch an item with one finger, tap the screen with another finger (“split tapping”): Activate item.
Double-tap and hold (1 second) + standard gesture: Use a standard gesture.
The double-tap and hold gesture tells iPhone to interpret the subsequent gesture as a standard one. For example, you can double-tap and hold, then without lifting your finger, drag your finger to slide a switch.
Two-finger double tap: Answer or end a call. Play or pause (iPod, YouTube, Voice Memos, Photos). Take a picture (Camera). Start or pause recording (Camera, Voice Memos).
Three-finger double tap: Mute or unmute VoiceOver.
Three-finger triple tap: Turn the screen curtain on or off.
NOTE: Single-finger flicking gestures must be done quickly to distinguish them from dragging gestures.
The rotor control is an invisible dial that you can use to change the results of up and down flick gestures when VoiceOver is turned on.
Operate a rotor:
Rotate two fingers on the iPhone screen to “turn” the dial to choose between options.
The effect of the rotor depends on what you’re doing. For example, if you’re reading text in an email you received, you can use the rotor to switch between hearing text spoken word-by-word or character-by-character when you flick up or down. If you’re browsing a webpage, use the rotor to choose whether you hear text word-by-word or character-by-character, hear just the headers, hear just the links (all of them, visited links, or links not yet visited), hear form elements, or hear descriptions of images. In other words, you can use the rotor setting to hear all the text, or to jump from one element to another of a certain type, such as headers or links.
Rotor options depend on the context of what you’re doing.
Select and hear:
text character-by-character
text word-by-word
Browsing a webpage
Select and hear:
text character-by-character
text word-by-word
headers
all links
form elements
links visited
links not visited
images
Entering text
Move insertion point and hear:
text character-by-character
text word-by-word
auto-text
Using a control (such as the spinner used to set the time in Clock)
Select and hear:
value character-by-character
value word-by-word
Or, adjust the value of the control object.
Select items on the screen:
Drag your finger over the screen. VoiceOver identifies each element as you touch it. You can also move systematically from one element to the next by flicking left or right with a single finger. Elements are selected from left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Flick right to go to the next element, or flick left to go to the previous element.
“Tap” a selected item when VoiceOver is turned on:
Double-tap anywhere on the screen.
Speak the text of an element, character by character or word by word:
With the element selected, flick up or down with one finger. Flick down to read the next character, or flick up to read the previous character. Twist the rotor control to read word by word.
Enter text:
Select a key on the keyboard by flicking left or right, then double-tap to enter the character. Or drag you finger around the keyboard to select a key and, while holding the key with one finger, tap the screen with another finger to enter the character. VoiceOver speaks the key when it’s selected and again when it’s entered.
Flick up or down to move the insertion point forward or backward in the text. VoiceOver makes a sound when the insertion point moves and speaks the character to the right of the insertion point. Use the Rotor to select moving the insertion point by character or by word.
To enter an accented character, double-tap and hold until you hear a sound that indicates the alternate characters have appeared, then drag left or right to select and hear the choices. Release your finger to enter the current selection.
Adjust a slider:
With a single finger, flick up to increase the setting or down to decrease the setting. VoiceOver announces the setting as you adjust it.
Scroll a list or area of the screen:
Flick up or down with three fingers. Flick down to scroll down, or flick up to scroll up. If you’re scrolling through a list, VoiceOver speaks the range of items displayed (for example, “showing rows 5 through 10”). Areas are scrolled in sections, and VoiceOver tells you which section is visible as you scroll.
For best results using three-finger gestures, relax and let your fingers touch the screen naturally.
Unlock iPhone:
Select the Unlock switch, then double-tap the screen.
Mute VoiceOver:
Double-tap with three fingers. Double-tap again with three fingers to turn speaking back on. To turn off only VoiceOver sounds, set the Ring/Silent switch to Silent.
Stop speaking an item:
Tap once with two fingers. Speaking automatically resumes when you select another item.
Turn off the display while you use VoiceOver (“Screen Curtain”):
Triple-tap with three fingers. Triple-tap again with three fingers to turn on the display again.
Speak entire screen from the top (“Read All”):
Flick up with two fingers.
Speak from current item to bottom of screen:
Flick down with two fingers.
Status information about iPhone can be heard by touching the top of the screen. This can include the time, battery life, Wi-Fi signal strength, and more.
Turn Zoom on or off:
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility - Zoom and tap the Zoom On/Off switch.
NOTE: You cannot use VoiceOver and Zoom at the same time.
Zoom in or out:
Double-tap the screen with three fingers. By default, the screen is magnified by 200 percent. If you manually change the magnification (by using the tap-and-drag gesture, described below), iPhone automatically returns to that magnification when you zoom in by double-tapping with three fingers.
Increase magnification:
With three fingers, tap and drag toward the top of the screen (to increase magnification) or toward the bottom of the screen (to decrease magnification). The tap-and-drag gesture is similar to a double-tap, except you don’t lift your fingers on the second tap—instead, drag your fingers on the screen. Once you start dragging, you can drag with a single finger.
For best results using three-finger gestures, relax and let your fingers touch the screen naturally.
Move around the screen:
When zoomed in, drag or flick the screen with three fingers. Once you start dragging, you can drag with a single finger so that you can see more of the screen. Hold a single finger near the edge of the display to pan to that side of the screen image. Move your finger closer to the edge to pan more quickly. When you open a new screen, Zoom always goes to the top-middle of the
Use White on Black to invert the colors on the iPhone display, which may make it easier to read the screen. The screen looks like a photographic negative when White on Black is turned on.
Invert the screen’s colors:
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility and tap the “White on Black” switch.
Mono Audio
Mono Audio combines the sound of the left and right channels into a mono signal played on both sides. This enables users with hearing impairment in one ear to hear the entire sound signal with the other ear.
Turn Mono Audio on or off:
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility and tap the Mono Audio switch.
Speak Auto-text speaks the text corrections and suggestions iPhone makes when you’re typing.
Turn Speak Auto-text on or off:
In Settings, choose General - Accessibility and tap the Speak Auto-text switch.
Speak Auto-text also works with VoiceOver or Zoom.
You can turn on closed captioning for videos in iPod settings. See Video.
Voice Control (iPhone 3G S only) lets you make phone calls and control iPod music playback by using voice commands. See Voice Dialing, and Using Voice Control with iPod.
Make phone calls simply by tapping entries in your contacts and favorites lists. When you need to dial a number, iPhone’s large numeric keypad makes it easy. See Making Calls.
Several applications let you rotate iPhone when you’re typing so that you can use a larger keyboard:
Safari
Messages
Notes
Contacts
The play and pause controls in visual voicemail let you control the playback of messages. Drag the playhead on the scrubber bar to repeat a portion of the message that’s hard to understand. See Checking Voicemail.
You can download and assign distinctive ringtones to individuals in your contacts list for audible caller ID. Create and download additional ringtones of your favorite songs from the iTunes Store (sold separately; not available in all regions). See Setting Ringtones and Creating Ringtones.
The App Store features many Internet Messaging (IM) applications such as AIM, BeejiveIM, ICQ, and Yahoo! Messenger that are optimized for iPhone.
To increase readability, set a minimum font size for Mail message text to Large, Extra Large, or Giant. See Mail.
Use iPhone in TTY mode with the iPhone TTY Adapter (available separately) to use a Teletype (TTY) machine. See Using iPhone with a Teletype (TTY) Machine.
Take advantage of the Universal Access features in Mac OS X when you use iTunes to sync information and content from your iTunes library to iPhone. In the Finder, choose Help - Mac Help, then search for “universal access.”
For more information about iPhone and Mac OS X accessibility features, go to www.apple.com/accessibility