There are a number of useful features on the iPhone to help with accessibility. The VoiceOver option will read to you from the screen. It will tell you what you tap on, what buttons are selected, and all the options. It will read entire screens of text as well. If you like to see things larger, you can also turn on the Zoom feature, as described after the next section.
Getting Your iPhone to Speak To You (VoiceOver)
One cool feature of the iPhone is that you can turn on the VoiceOver feature so that the iPhone will speak anything on the screen. You can even get it to read to you from any email, text document, or even an iBook page.
TIP: Use your headphones when VoiceOver is on and you are in a public place to better hear what is said and to avoid bothering others.
To enable VoiceOver:
1. Tap the Settings icon.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Accessibility near the bottom of the page.
4. Tap VoiceOver.
5. Set the VoiceOver switch to On.
CAUTION: As shown on the screen to the right, the VoiceOver gestures are different from the normal gestures. Tap the Practice VoiceOver Gestures button to get used to them.
Scroll down the VoiceOver screen to see more settings.
Adjust whether or not hints are spoken by changing the setting for Speak Hints.
When you type with VoiceOver, by default every character you type will be spoken. You can change it by tapping Typing Feedback. On the next screen you can set feedback to Characters, Words, Characters and Words, or Nothing.
On this setting screen, you can also adjust the Speaking Rate by sliding the bar.
You can adjust whether Phonetics and Pitch Change are used by setting the switches.
To have an entire page read to you in the Notes or iBooks app, you need to simultaneously tap the bottom and top of the block of text on the screen. If you tap in the text with one finger, only a single line is read to you.
Using Zoom to Magnify the Entire Screen
You may want to turn on the Zoom feature if you find that the text, icons, buttons, or anything on the screen is a little too hard to see. With the Zoom turned on, you can zoom the entire screen to almost twice the size. Everything is much easier to read.
NOTE: You cannot use VoiceOver and Zoom at the same time; you need to choose one or the other. Instead of magnifying the entire screen, you can also increase just the font sizes for your major apps using the Large Text feature. We show you how in the "Use Larger Text Size for Easier Reading" section below.
To enable Zoom:
1. Tap the Settings icon.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Accessibility near the bottom of the page.
4. Tap Zoom.
5. Set the switch next to Zoom to On.
Similar to VoiceOver, Zoom uses the three-fingered gestures. Make sure to take note of them before you leave the screen.
White on Black
If the contrast and colors are difficult to see, then you might want to turn on the White on Black setting. To change this setting:
1. Get into the Accessibility screen in the Settings app, as shown previously.
2. Set the White on Black switch to On.
With this setting On, everything that was light on the screen becomes black, and everything that was dark or black becomes white.
Use Larger Text Size for Easier Reading
You can really expand the size of your font in Contacts, Mail, Messages and Notes using the Large Text feature.
1. Tap the Settings icon.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Accessibility near the bottom of the page (you need to swipe down).
4. Tap Large Text. You will then see a screen of font size options going from Off, 20pt text, 24pt, 32pt, 40pt, 48pt and 56pt text. Tap the size you want to use. The image shown to the right is using 48pt font.
5. Tap the Accessibility button in the upper left corner to return to the previous screen, then tap the Home button to exit Settings.
Triple-Click Home Button Options
You can set a triple-click of the Home button to do various things related to Accessibility.
1. Get into the Accessibility screen in the Settings app, as shown previously.
2. Tap Triple-click the Home Button near the bottom of the page.
3. Choose from Off, Toggle VoiceOver, Toggle White on Black, or Ask.
