Apple Releases iOS 9.1 with New Features, Enhancements and Some Bug Fixes for Blind and Low Vision Users

Interesting that you claim that the audio ducking and vanishing earcon issues have been fixed. They are both still alive and well on my 5S. The former is especially noticeable if you start an app such as BlindSquare. The latter is intermittent but seems to occur more often when dealing with sluggish applications whose main GUI threads are blocked, e.g. Facebook.

Hello,
I am running iOS 9.1 on a 6+. The audio ducking issues seem to have been fixe on my device. I was just listening to a book on audible and it was working fine.

Regards,
Greg Wocher

My upgrade to iOS 9.1 went as smooth as silk. It was a little faster than previous releases and I've not noticed any real show stoppers. There is, however, a bug that still exists that I thought it might be worth mentioning. I'd be interested to see if anyone else still has this particular thing going on. I plan to write to Apple's accessibility team. The bug is that when using a Bluetooth device like headphones, the device is disconnected if you disable VoiceOver, and re-enable it. Here are the steps to reproduce this, just so everyone understands...
1. connect any Bluetooth device to your iDevice like a pare of headphones, or a Bluetooth speaker.
2. What I usually do is start an internet stream or some music on Pandora, just so I can get something going through the Bluetooth device.

3. Now, triple tap the home button, and you'll notice that not only does VoiceOver get disabled, which it should do, but you'll also find that VoiceOver is now coming through the iPhone's speaker once again. Depending on the app you're using for music playback, the music may continue playing, but it also might be paused, so be aware of that. I haven't tried reconnecting the Bluetooth device manually, I usually turn off the Bluetooth device and then turn it back on and let it re-connect on its own. Other than that I've nnot found any other bugs.

To the user who mentioned @BlindSquare as an app with which they are having audio issues, that is a BlindSquare issue, I believe, rather than an iOS issue. That's something that the devs of BlindSquare will have to fix.

When one mutes the phone using the vibrate switch on the side and receives a call, the phone now vibrates continuously as expected. Additionally, when a call is ended, VoiceOver now comes back to the speaker as normal and does not stay on the ear piece or speakerphone.

well as the update come out
I have updated now, as far as bugs regarding,
I din't face any bugs after upgrading it
though it may still there are few or more bugs
need to be resolved, which have mentioned
in accessibility bugs list of ios 9.0
maybe some of them have been fixed and some has to fixe next updates
so on, hads off to apple
and 1 more thing, great job dun by applevis team
for reporting us that what have been fixed and what new bugs have been introduce
in every new update
once again thanks in tun to applevis team

The audio ducking issue also occurs if you play anything in the native music app, so I must disagree that this issue is exclusive to BlindSquare. The other problem that still exists is the VO hang after replying to an email. One nice thing I've found is that some other apps which monitor external audio interfaces, such as AmpKit, work again in 9.1 where they didn't in 9.0x, so that's something.

Interesting, BlindSquare is the only app that I have noticed where the volume of the audio drops every single time you enter the app until you close it from the app switcher. I did not know that about the Music app.

Yes. The time does not states when pres power button. You hear lock and nothing. Is this a bug or not.

hi.
Can anyone confirm if the bug with bluetooth keyboard in edit fields was fixed?
I will not do the update without  know  if  this bug has been fixed.
thanks.
cheers.

I can also confirm that the phone vibration bug along with the vo distortion bug has been fixed. Yes, vo not announcing the time when power button is pressed is a bug but one I can live with.

Since 9.0, I am experiencing a major problem with navigating the phone app when I am on a call. VO is either mute, or unresponsive. I have to redial several times until it works well. I haven't seen much discussion about it, I wonder if anybody else had this same problem.
Thank you

I can confirm that navigating on the phone app is iffy with VO while in a call, but I did notice it works better if you switch it to speaker phone first.

This isn't really a bug, I don't think. But has anyone else noticed that when restarting your phone, the settings app is automatically opened when the phone restarts?

Pressing the command key twice on a bluetooth keyboard now presents a list of keyboard shortcuts accessible to Voiceover.

reading coment problem on facebook

I sent a pic to someone via sharing message. One had problem with selecting person, when typing voiceover did not read the word I type after tapping space bar. Can someone check to see if they can share pic via message? Thanks.

The two finger tap to pause and resume audio in Downcast still seems to be broken as doing so starts music playing from Apple Music. Heading Navigation in GrubHub and Newsify which worked perfectly in IOS 8.4 is still gone as there is no longer heading navigation. Mail still says no unread messages on home screen even though there are several unread messages. Not sure what was updated if anything at all. Very disappointing.

I just got my iPhone 6S set up the other day and it asked me to install IOS 9.2, which I've done.

A bug I've seen is that VO will state the "clear section" element in notification center when notifications are present as a heading, but it can still be double tapped. also, when using roter settings, I prefer to keep mine set on headings. however, this doesn't stay as it should. It'll sometimes go back to characters if no headings are present. Quite odd.

I have also noticed the issue with VO and bluetooth connected audio. I've found that if I press the play button on my headset, audio usually returns to the headset immediately. I think this would only work when media is paused. Otherwise, I turn my headset off and back on.

Hello.

I think audio ducking work very well.
and fixed bluetooth keyboard not working without VoiceOver command.
thanks.

The issues with bluetooth devices have been present since the release of 9.0. My hope was that they'd fix it for this release but sounds like that hasn't happened yet. I haven't installed it myself yet but i will be. For those who may not know the email for apple accessibility is
accessibility@apple.com
Hope this helps and, to the apple vis team grate job on these articles they're very informative.

After reading this entire post, it's very clear that Apple's supposed fixes for Blind/VI are definitely far outweighing the encountered bugs. I myself struggle with the Bluetooth problem Mario pointed out, where in a text field you have to fight with VO to get it to properly accept letter input, whether quicknav is on or off. Granted, I have not gone to great lengths to test out every single scenario across multiple devices but I will say this. On my iPod 3g and 4S, which both use IOS4.3.5 and IOS7. something, respectively, it works. On my tablet and my iPhone 5S, which use IOS9.2, it doesn't work. Seems pretty cut and dried for me.

The audio ducking/VO not reading time after device wakes, seem kind of minor. The audio ducking seems to be flukey, (go figure Apple), and I find a good old-fashioned sleep+home reset works to help that problem on occasion. It's only one more thing to try anyway. The time announcing thing ... while annoying, I'm sure it'll be overlooked and then randomly fixed exactly how it was broken: by accident.

There are a few other bugs not listed here but might be popping around on some other forum pages that I am not looking at currently, so if they're already out there, I'm sorry for the redundancy. However, in the app switcher, VO no longer accurately reads app badges indicating how many unread items/unattended items you have. This broke within the IOS9.1/2 days, I'm quite sure. Also, VO is no longer echoing text as you try and edit it within edit fields. Not sure about anyone else, but this seems somewhat major to me. The app-switcher not giving me accurate counts of how many icons are bouncing up and down doesn't piss me off too much, but I do know that it is a commonality shared by both my IOS9 devices. I have not however had a chance to test whether VO's inability to edit text fields character by character, or backspace them character by character is a problem that they share as well. I will do it if I get a few moments of solidarity and/or silence ... tomorrow. Somehow. :(

Hope this helps someone.

Best,
J_A_D

I notice there is no discussion of the audio routing or call answering bug that was affecting some users which meant that they could not answer calls especially when wearing headphones. I have been running 9. 9.1 for a while and have never experienced this, but I was wondering if someone who has had this problem could tell me whether it is fixed so I can help a friend.

The audio routing bug has not been fixed.

Hello,

I wonder if the bug present since IOS 9 has been fixed. Sometimes after recording a message and hitting either play or send, the message disappears. Seems to be a losing focus issue with VoiceOver or something else. I know I'm not alone experiencing this bug, so just curious if it has ever been addressed. Thanks!

Since the introduction of iOS 8, VO has been unable to announce legends and radio button field sets correctly in Safari. I can't believe in iOS 9.1 these bugs have still not been addressed. Moreover, Mac OS 10.11 does not announce a legend grouping either!

Come on Apple, sor it out!

I still have the ducking issue on my 5S. Will upgrade to 6S soon.

I can also confirm that the double finger tap to pause and start podcasts in Downcast is an actual bug in Downcast. i don't experience this with any other app. It seemed to creep in with iOS 8.4.

I'd switch to Overcast, but I like to override the volume limit of some quiet podcasts as I am hard of hearing.

I know others have stated that their Mail icon does not expose the number of new messages to VO; it is working fine for me.

Hello,
In the iOS update that was released yesterday, something was mentioned about Sprint enhanced Wi-Fi calling. I am a Sprint customer, and I have had Wi-Fi calling for about 6 months now. Does anyone know anything about this, or what it means? Thank you.

I had hoped this was fixed, but I still experience a crackling sound with Vo sound volume on 50 or 60, not all the time, most often when I flic through items, and even then not all the time. It would be nice to hear from other 6S users if you have the same experience before reporting to accessibility.

@Claus I have a 6S and I do not have this crackling sound issue that you mentioned.

Problem continues with voiceover not working when making a call with Bluetooth. Sent email to accessibility to let them know again. Using iOS 9.1, iPhone 6. I wonder if new Bluetooth4.4 works for iOS 9.1?

I have noticed that the enhanced Voiceover Samantha voice still sounds like it is under water. Also, when Wifi nor cellular data is availavle, it does not automatically switch over to text messaging. I do have SMS enabled. I have to turn iMessaging off in order to send messages when I cannot send iMessages. I have the iPhone6, and have updated to iOS9.1

Hi all,
Thanks for all the info about the bugs still alive and fixed in 9.1. One thing I've not seen anyone talk about is the Wi-Fi braille display info displayed in the stuatus bar. When using my braille edge, and I go in to the status bar and connected to wi-fi, voice over displays 2 or three wi-fi bars, SSID. When I review the info with speach, it says 2 or 3 wi-fi bars, and the network name. I am runing 9.0.2 on an iPhone 5s, I'm not sure if its a braille edge problem, or if its just my phone, or if its only when 2 or 3 bars of wi-fi are around, or a strange mix of both. If anyone else has seen this around, I'd like to know.
Thanks all, i look forward to reading your input.

Since I installed iOS9 and above on my iPhone 6 plus, I've noticed that when running certain apps, especially those that require landscape mode, the rotor controls override the apps controls. Sometimes shaking the phone will straighten it out, but often I need to turn VO off and then back on. I've also noticed that on these apps, where there may be multiple pages of controls, flicking up to advance to the next page will cause VO to speak the new number, but the actual available controls do not change. Many of these apps are advanced music apps like synthesizers and multitrack recording programs.
Gord

Has anybody had success posting a review on the app store? I am running Ios 9.2 on an iPhone 6 plus. I wanted to post a review of Washio, which is a laundry service app. I pulled up the page for the app in the store, went to the review tab, and pressed the submit review button. I am able to select the number of stars with the picker. Then I enter a nickname. Then I enter a subject for the message. This is often where the problem happens. I am suddenly taken back to the previous page. Pressing submit review shows me that all the info I entered is gone. Am I missing something here, or is this a bug in the app store program itself?
Thanks
Gord

I appreciate hearing the time when I wake up my phone by pressing the power button. Hopefully they'll fix this. because sometimes it takes an extra second to find the time on the status bar.

Hi, all I sent an email to apple regarding issues with Bluetooth
disconnecting from my phone when making or getting a call. Got
the following. At this time is working but for those of you who
still have issues do the following and send them what they
looking. See below. Hope this help.
Hello,

Thank you for your reply. We appreciate the additional details
that you included. We would like to get stack shots to find out
more about this behavior.
Please do the following:
The next time it happens press the home button and either of the
volume buttons simultaneously.
Let up on the buttons wait a little bit (a 10 count should be
fine) then do it again.

Connect your iPhone to a computer and sync it.
The logs and stack shots will transfer to the computer during the
sync.

For Mac OS X systems:
Connect your iPhone and sync it in iTunes.
In the Finder press command+Shift+G and navigate to
~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/
If you have multiple iOS devices select the appropriate device to
get the logs from.
Compress the folder and send it to us.

For Windows system:
Connect your iPhone and sync it in iTunes.
Windows XP: the crash logs are in C:\Documents and
Settings\USER\Application Data\Apple computer\Logs\CrashReporter\
Windows Vista & Windows 7: the crash logs are in
C:\Users\USER\AppData\Roaming\Apple
computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\device name

Sincerely,

Apple Accessibility