The Accessibility Bugs Introduced and Resolved in iOS 16 for Blind and Low Vision Users

Another thing I discovered is that if you swipe left or right, the app will eventually say active and it will close properly. If it doesn't say active, then it won't and you have to swipe until it does.

I fully agree that using the Eddy voice cauzes Eloquence to sounds less compressed especially at pitch set to %29

The following is what VO says when focused on the Calendar Widget:
3 all-day
Event 1
From 4:56AM to 5:56AM
Location 1
From 4:56AM to 5:56AM
Note that if I have an event, it will still have this at the bottom, and it will say 30 seconds travel time on either side of the event, even if I don't have a set travel time.
The other calendar bug is that when creating the event I noticed that the Calendar picker, Free/Busy picker, and the Alert picker are marked as dimmed even though I can use them just fine.

So, this only appears to be affecting the Nicky voice (I've tried others), and it only happens sometimes.
If I type in a word—any word, VO usually say the word before it and then the word you just inputted. Now I noticed Nicky (as I said, this is the only voice that I've found does this) doesn't do that anymore, it just says the currently inputted word. But sometimes, if I listen closely, I can hear the first letter sound of the previous word and then it immediately says the word I just wrote. Can anybody see this?

Another thing I found while trying to test Alex, was that if I stayed in the preview while it downloaded then click on it, it wouldn't be Alex that spoke but Samantha, a little milder, perhaps, then when you click on it in its own preview, but still there! Now, I've seen this in some cases, like in EasyReader Alex will show as downloaded but when you tap it it will be replaced by Samantha, and it's been happening for sometime now, but this has never happened after downloading it in settings. I have downloaded it numerous times for testing perposes but then always deleting it again because it was a big oof on my storage. But now there was Samantha, talking as though she were Alex, when I tried to navigate around VO was sluggish and didn't say "Button" or "heading" after anything. I managed to retreat to the safety of my ol' faithful Nicky voice before it totally stopped speaking, and then deleted it and tried it again and left the preview this time and surprise!—there was Alex again, just as usual.

Hi all,
I don't love, and can't really get used to, this new way of recording audio messages in iOS 16. So, I e-mailed accessibility@apple.com about it. I'll put my e-mail in a separate post when I get home from work, so others can use it as a template if they wish. However, if this bothers you as much as it does me, I suggest e-mailing them about it. I got a response back today saying that they've forwarded my feedback onto the appropriate team, but I think the more of us they hear from the better chance we have of some kind of alternative being implemented.

As the title says, I can't record audio messages from my phone anymore because I just can't figure out how. Of course, I don't use them very much but you never know! For now I still have my iPad running iPadOS 15.7 which works like I'm used to, but if this feature isn't fixed/changed for easier use/whatever you want to call it, in October, I will update to iPados 16 and will have no devices capable of audio messaging.
Can somebody remind me how exactly to use this?

I've never been a fan of audio messages but only use it because I have one friend who prefers them do to his disability. You are suppose to be able to go under apps within the messages app and then audio, however when I'm in a message and double tap on the apps button it does nothing. What am I doing wrong?

This is not a new bug in iOS 16, but it has been a long time annoyance.

If you read an article in the News app and then hit the "Back" button to get back to the list of articles, my expectation is that focus with VO should be on the article in the list that you just closed and that flicking right once should bring you to the next article in the list.

Instead, when closing an article focus jumps to the top of the screen. Then one has to flick right a bunch of times to find out where one was in the list of articles when browsing and reading. Closing a dialog should always bring focus back to the place from which one came.

--Pete

Compose a new message. Flick left to and double tap on the Apps button. A whole bunch of apps now show up on the screen, making it look quite complicated.

Somewhere above the letter y on the keyboard that is shown, is the Audio button. Double tap that. Now, near the bottom center of the screen, find a record button and double tap that to start recording. The focus shifts to a Stop button. So, when you are finished talking, just do a double tap anywhere. Now, take your finger and slide up the right edte of the screen until you get to a Send button. Double tap that. All done.

Here are sevferal user experience issues I would like to see addressed when interacting with messages.

Suggestion #1: In the messages app, when flicking through the list of messages with Voiceover, VO should announce the "read/unread" status of a message prior to reading the entire list of recipients followed by the text of the mesage. It is very inefficient and time consuming to find the "unread" messages in a list of messages if the status is read after vocalizing a long list of recipients and the text of the mesage.

2. I noticed that in iOS 16 one of the context menu items in the mesage list is to "mark as read". Very convenient so that one doesn't have to actually open the message thread to have it marked as read. Wouldn't it be nice if, once a mesage on the locked screen is read, that there would be a similar option to mark the message as "read". Currently there is no way of doing this. Thus if one reads a mesage on the locked screen, the Messages app on the home screen still notifies the user that there are unread messages in the app. Then we come back to the first suggestion above for more easily finding the "unread" message.

--Pete

There was always an option to mark as read, but I too find it annoyingt I can't mark a message as read on the lockscreen.

I have upgraded to IOS 16 and I have Nuance for English UK and Lekha in Hindi to read the Hindi language.

However, the Voice Over is not automatically switching from English to Hindi as and when it finds the different language.

Please provide me some solution to this.

I have upgraded to IOS 16 and I have Nuance for English UK and Lekha in Hindi to read the Hindi language.

However, the Voice Over is not automatically switching from English to Hindi as and when it finds the different language.

Please provide me some solution to this.

Those who are finding it a tad difficult to record Imessages,
The easiest way to find audio recording button is to
1. Go to compose message
2. Find a place where one generally comes across suggested text while typing. It is just above the keyboard.
3. One can easily find audio there along with several other options like photos.
4. Click on the audio and one will find record/pause/stop button there.
Hope this helps. I find it more intuitive than the earlier practice where the send button itself worked as record button.
Thank you and have a smashing day ahead!

I can't get my orbit writer to pair with my phone. I have tried reset and selected a channel but no joy. Hope you can help.

While flicking down after selecting Misspelt rotor, all Voiceover is telling me is "new line." I have made sure I am at the start of the text. Now I am not sure whether this is specific to 16, but noticed it now as I have upgraded.

While browsing the text with word rotor, Vo does say "misspelt" as it encounters a misspelt word.

I'm also not a big fan of the new way audio messages are recorded. I'm used to it, but I don't really like it. Having said that, I don't think Apple will change the behaviour. It has worked this way on the watch for as long as I can remember. I'm assuming Apple made the change to create a universal experience. I could be totally wrong about this. We'll just have to see what happens as time goes on.

Definitely more annoying than serious, but if you're using a different voice than your default language selection, when using BSI, the default voice speaks the words entered and deleted instead of the currently selected voice. So for example, say you're using Vocalizer Daniel at the moment, but your default is Fred. When using Braille Screen Input, when you flick right to add a space or perform any of the delete gestures, Fred will speak instead of Daniel. It's been broken since Public Beta 1.
It's not something incredibly serious in my opinion, but it's still worth addressing.
Also, this seems to only be a problem with languages in different dialects. So, if you have two US voices set up in your rotor, one being the default and one being a secondary, it does not matter which one is invoked, because BSI will speak with that particular voice. But if you're using Irish with US as your default, US takes precedence for some reason.

Those who have reported issues with notifications, including myself. As discovered yesterday, iOS 16.1 should fix this issue. The public beta should be out soon if it isn't already.

Prior to IOS 16, instead of holding down the record button to make an audio text message, you can simply bring the phone to your ear as if you were making a call and the audio recording of your text message will begin and the recording will stop once you remove the phone from your ear. So, this was a helpful shortcut before IOS 16. Has this feature/functionality been removed in IOS 16? If not, it is a great way to record a text message and not have to go through the new functionality. I have not yet updated so don't know if this still works in IOS 16 so perhaps someone can try it and let everyone know.

Hi Peter. I'm familiar with the focus issue in News. The solution I've been perfecting is where to touch the screen at the point where focus would otherwise jump. To find where I left off after using the back button to exit an article, it's almost always around the middle of the screen. It's almost always two thirds down the screen after I double tap on share to find the mail button. I believe that if you experiment, you'll be able to more precisely aim to avoid the big jumps.

good luck.

Bruce

Here are a few more bugs, a couple of which I'm not sure are bugs, but rather intentional behavior.
1: Now, whenever I reboot my phone, I am forced to re-enter my apple ID password. I did not have to do this previously in IOS 15.
2: Very rarely, when I am scrolling through applications on my home screen, I have noticed that Voiceover will switch to speking them using the Samantha voice, rather than Vocalizer Ava, which is my default voice. This does not seem to happen often, and is more of a very slight annoyance than anything.
3: I can also confirm that notification center is not working properly. I can no longer double tap on notifications to have the respective app oppen, but rather have to view the notifications manually. This renders the notification center almost useless to me.
4: For a while I have been noticing very strange behavior with voiceover that I'm not sure is IOS 16 specific, as I seem to remember it happening in 15 as well. Sometimes, voiceover will speak some text after it speaks what's on the screen. For example, when scrolling through my apps, sometimes voiceover will speak the text followed by something like "outdoors, night sky, logo other, etc.

VoiceOver speaking with default voice rather than the rotor dialec is not specific to 16, I recall 15 doing this as well.

As far as holding your phone up to your ear to record audio messages I was able to get this to work on ios16 as well so it is still an option. Regarding voiceover saying outdoor, night sky, etc. I think this is normal however annoying behavior depending on the situation because describe images are turned on. I have not yet tested this behavior with describe images turned off but I will say it is very annoying when you are on a phone call and have to press an option like 1 for example and vo will say 1, outdoor,night sky. Apple should allow you to customize this feature for when you want images described and when you don't.

one suggestion for the image description issue within the phone app is to create an activity with image descriptions turned off. you can apply this activity to be enabled while in the phone app. Not sure if this will address the issue described? HTH.

As I mentioned above, the notification center issue is fixed in iOS 16.1.
Your phone asking you for your Apple ID password every time you restart it is most definitely a bug.
As for the last thing on your list, that's voiceover image recognition. You can turn that off in settings, if you wish.
Hope this helps.

Is it just me, or is VoiceOver a lot less reliable when it comes to edit mode? I have found sometimes I can enter edit mode while simply flicking through the actions menu, then I move around and apps seem to be moving around as I tap them. I moved about half the apps on my home screen to the second page by accident because of it.

So when I opened phone call VO was okay for a while then it started crackling a bit and it started getting harder and harder to get it to move by swiping, then VO recovered and spat out all my caller's contact info in one big burst of words. I turned VO off after that. Is this new?

The battery is bad with iOS 16. iPhone 12 pro.

I reported the major bugs about Iphone sometimes restarting with no voiceover and the one about losing voiceover speach after a call. They need diagnostic information on these along with time stamps. As far as losing speach when hanging up from a call that one I can reproduce easily but the one where voiceover doesn't load at all until you enter your passcode that one is going to be harder for me to produce and to be honest that is one I'm knervous about reproducing.

My battery isn't going down faster then usual, but what do you mean?

Yes, I'm nervous about it too LOL. Now that I've heard this widespread bug, I am trying to not reboot my phone, which means relying on VO to keep going all this time.

Normally from 6:00 Am to 12:00 PM, goes from 100 to 80%. Now to 30%.

Just try the regular battery-Save procedure (close apps, put it face-down for a while, turn off notifications, etc). Could be optimized battery charging being funky, it wouldn't be the first time, although nothing happening for me, maybe turn that off. Close apps that have been running playback recently (I know it sounds strange, but it works!) and if those don't work take it to Apple.

Do all that. Made changes to it a long time ago regarding how to save battery. It is the iOS in my case.

I know this is what Apple needs. But as someone who doesn't have sighted help available often, I'm not willing to chance it. I don't want to make a habit of visiting my neighbor in that way. Whenever I next have a set of working eyes handy, I'll give it a try.

I'm having an issue with voiceover where it returns to the default voice for a language, E.G. Melena for russian, after a while. It's kind of weird to reproduce but for a while it will use the voice you chose, e.g. katya default, then you'll be reading something in that language and it will be reading with whatever the default voice is instead. When you go back into settings, it will say that the voice you chose is selected until you select another one, e.g. katya enhanced, then it will say that the voice you had chosen before isn't downloaded. I had katya selected, and was reading and suddenly it switched to milena. I went back in and selected yuri instead, then went into katya and it said neither the default or enhanced voice are downloaded. Interestingly, I only started seeing that on this RC, not on some out the earlier betas.

hi, why, when eloquence and other vocalizer voices see a quotation is it still!! saying apostrophie before the quotation even though punctuation set to some or none? on windows blind people do not hear this so clearly, eloquence hasn't been implemented correctly, even with a rule saying ignore single quotation and closing would still say apostrophe why are you sad?" asked Will. it driving me insane and is extra verbiage we don't need.

Hi,

this bug has been there before 16, and has been worse in some betas, but I just encountered it this morning after hanging up a phone call. No speech from voiceover and only a restart of voiceover using the side button on my iphone 13 got it back to live. I understand this is a problem for Apple to reproduce and resolve since there are no pattern to this bug, but it is a serious bug in a phone.

@holga I had the battery drain thing in 2019 when updating my iPhone 8 to IOS unlucky 13, as you called it. You will not want to hear this but I'm afraid the only thing that resolved it for me, in the end, was to set my iPhone up as new. A restore didn't do it. All the battery saving tips given above and which you have tried didn't do it. Taking it to Apple and getting a new battery didn't do it. Various updates to IOS13 which said they fixed battery drain didn't do it. Setting up as new did it perfectly. it's a hassle, but it works.

Will wait to see. If I need to do I will. I just change the lock screen away from the earth. I think it was using location to mark. I am planning to get 13 pro or 14 plus. Depend on price. Hope the 13 pro is cheaper than 14 pro.

If you say tell siri to, for exapple open accessibility settings it won't just open General, it will acctually put you in Accessibility! Yay!

I have been encountering some VO sluggishness when on the phone (not facetime) but then turn VO off until hang up call then turn it on again and it works just fine. So is it about VO turn off and on?

When accessing a video on a webpage, you used to be able to flick to “full screen” view and a nice new window would open with all the player options laid out to use. Now, hitting “full screen” opens a viewer at the bottom of then page with many empty fields, such as time played/remaining, the play/pause button and other details. Completely useless now.

Thanks for reporting on the Siri bug about telling Siri to open a specific menu in the settings menu. I thought I was the only one experiencing that bug but glad to hear it is fixed

Remember, when iOS is updated, especially a major one like 16, the iPhone needs to redo it index of data. This can take several days, depending on how much stuff you have in your phone. Don't panic yet. Give it a week.

For those of you who have Braille displays, use that if your phone stops working. You have no voice but you do have a way to get into your phone possibly.

Just some handy tips...

I haven’t had this bug thankfully but understand how it must be one of the worst because the phone is completely unusable. I have just been setting up my new 14 Pro Max and after a restart I entered my PIN with my Bluetooth keyboard and suddenly realised that might be a fix for anyone else with this bug who can’t enter the PIN on screen? If I’ve misunderstood the bug then ignore this comment but if it is how I understand it a Bluetooth keyboard will resolve this problem. Startup sound is great by the way and the phone is incredibly quick. Speakers are so much better than my 11 Pro Max that I can increase speed of VO from 75% to 85% and still understand just as well.

I updated my iPhone 11 from 15.6.1 to 16 and Alex was working fine until it randomly changed inflection. Now it sounds absolutely awful! Is there a way to fix this? I still say the best version of Alex was in Snow Leopard and I wish we had that version. I've switched back to the female Siri voice 4 because it's the only thing I can tolerate anymore. They upgraded Vocalizer to the awful new compressed version, so every single voice including Ava sounds like garbage now.

Not sure if this has already been reported. In iOS 15, there was a bug where VoiceOver users could not reliably double tap on a number in the recent call log. Double tapping could result in the phone dialing another number on the list. I updated on Monday and so far I've been able to double tap on a number on the recents list with 100% accuracy.