Rachio

Category

Description of App

Have a minute to relax?
Take over when ready.

Introducing the companion app to the much anticipated Iro cloud-connected sprinkler controller.

The majority of the time you want your home systems to operate silently and efficiently in the background, taking care of your household while you live
your daily life. There are times though when you want to engage with your home and land in fun and inspiring ways.

Our smartphone app puts the power of your sprinkler system in the palm of your hand. We’ll let you know what’s going on with your system and you can adjust
it from there as you see fit.

Version

1.8

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone
iPad

iOS Version

8.1

Accessibility Comments

the current version, 1.8, is completely accessible to VoiceOver. Controls are clearly labelled, and all features can be accessed. Installation of the controller itself does need some sighted assistance, but this is for the hardware, not installing or linking the app to the hardware. the folks at Rachio are completely committed to working with VoiceOver, and tech support is great. I was invited to help beta test version 1.8, and was very impressed with the experience. I beta tested with IOS 8.1 on the iPad Mini, and am running it on the iPhone 4s with IOS 7, which works equally well.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

All buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

The app is fully accessible with VoiceOver and is easy to navigate and use.

Recommendations

1 people have recommended this app

Most recently recommended by Brian Unitt 9 years 11 months ago

Options

Comments

By Travis Roth on Thursday, April 21, 2016 - 15:35

It appears that accessibility has taken a small step backwards from the original review on this page.
I am using Rachio version 2.3.3 with iPhone 6s and iOS 9.3.1.
Quite a bit of the interface is accessible and there is enough accessible once set up you can find workarounds for the parts that're not working. Things to be aware of:
Setup:
Buttons in the app often have their labels following them especially true in setup. E.g., swipe once for "button" swipe again to get to the label for the controller type you want to set up. (Generation 2, or generation one.)
On screens to choose specific items for your zones such as vegetation type, how much sunlight, soil type, sprinkler head type and terrain type the items do not indicate if they are selected or unselected. There is always one selected by default. Unfortunately if you double tap the item that is already selected it becomes unselected. So this is a guessing game.
Main screen:
There are four tabs. They are not labeled but the icon names can be made out.
On the Dashboard screen, the Manual Run button which is at the bottom center is not labeled. There are a few other unlabeled buttons as well throughout in particular Close buttons. I recommend using VoiceOver's labeling function to label them.
Manual run: this screen is inaccessible as the slider to adjust zone run times is inoperable by VoiceOver. This is by far the biggest defect in the app.
Workaround:
By creating a watering schedule, you can then go to the very bottom and click Run Now. Note that VoiceOver does not scroll the watering schedule screens by flicking so when you get to the bottom of a screen you need to three finger swipe up to review more information and controls.

There is more to this app I have not explored but believe that it is possible to use with some workarounds to be more accessible than my old sprinkler controller that only had a display screens and buttons and knobs.
There is also a web interface which is no more accessible, but if necessary an assistant could log into it and double check things.

By kevinchao89 on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - 15:35

Rachio (smart sprinklers) have an IFTTT channel and it's great being able to control via voice-enabled speaker-based assistant and receive notifications. The app is usable for setup and basic usage, but does have some VoiceOver accessibility issues for more involved interactions, but that is where 3P IFTTT really helps a lot.