Description
There are numerous issues for VoiceOver users when using a hardware keyboard for text composition/editing.
Specifically, using a hardware keyboard to navigate long documents by paragraph or line is typically inconsistent and unreliable, as is attempting to select a paragraph of text.
For example, according to this Apple Support page, the Option-Up/Down Arrow shortcut should move VoiceOver focus (and the cursor) to the beginning or end of the paragraph.
However, the behaviour of this keyboard shortcut can be inconsistent and unreliable. This is particularly the case with 3rd-party apps such as Drafts and IA Writer, but is also present in some native apps.
The above behaviour makes trying to be productive with text editing an extremely frustrating experience.
The following forum thread from March 2022 discusses in more detail some of the issues: Text editing on iPad with a hardware keyboard, has it improved in the past couple years?
Steps to reproduce
- Ensure that VoiceOver is enabled.
- Open the native Notes app.
- Create a new note.
- Ensure that QuickNav is disabled.
- Type or copy/paste a lot of text that includes many paragraphs.
- Move VoiceOver focus to the beginning of the text.
- Use Option-Down Arrow to move VoiceOver focus to the end of the paragraph (VoiceOver should speak the text of the paragraph).
- Repeat #7 several times.
It is likely that everything has behaved as expected so far.
- Use Option-Up Arrow to move VoiceOver focus (and the cursor) to the beginning of the paragraph.
- Repeat #9 several times.
You should find that the movement of VoiceOver focus and the cursor is not reliable.
Typically, it may skip some paragraphs, not read the text of some paragraphs, or get ‘stuck’ (in that focus and the cursor reach a certain point in the text and refuse to move up any further).
If you now switch to using Option-Down Arrow, you may find that the movement of focus and the cursor is no longer reliable moving forward through the text.
If you perform a similar test when composing a new email in the native Mail app, you should find that this keyboard shortcut behaves as expected in the message body field.
Comments
Unable to use Bluetooth keyboard with voiceov enabled in iOS 26.
In iOS 26 developer beta four and onwards, I am unable to use an external keyboard either the Bluetooth or USB connectivity with VoiceOver enabled.
In developer beter 8 this problem is still present.
Have you checked that full…
Have you checked that full keyboard isn't turned on. It conflicts.
Thanks for your reply Oliver
I most certainly have. In fact I've been using a Bluetooth keyboard with my iOS devices since 2012 and I do this because it's my preferred workflow and everything was working basically OK a few bugs not the standing but it all crashed since developed a beta four of iOS 26.
I've even done factory reset, and as a developer, I am reasonably clued up on how it all works.
Thanks for your reply Oliver
I most certainly have. In fact I've been using a Bluetooth keyboard with my iOS devices since 2012 and I do this because it's my preferred workflow and everything was working basically OK a few bugs not the standing but it all crashed since developed a beta four of iOS 26.
I've even done factory reset, and as a developer, I am reasonably clued up on how it all works.
It is a very old problem
Problems with using a Bluetooth keyboard under iOS have been around for quite a while. I used to send in regular reports of the problems, but have not said much in recent years. Below is a note that I sent to Apple Accessibility nearly ten years ago.
I hope AppleVis can bring more visibility to the keyboard problems from the past, and those that may have been introduced in iOS 26. I would love to see dependable text editing functionality returned to Bluetooth keyboards running under iOS. I still do all of my writing with my iPhone using my Magic keyboard.
From: "Morgan Watkins"
Date: March 24, 2016 at 4:14:14 PM CDT
To: Apple Accessibility <accessibility@apple.com>
Subject: Re: Bluetooth keyboard and "paragraph" bug in 9.3; Follow-up: 638105348
*****
Thanks for asking for more detail.
A text editing bug is still present in iOS 9.3 when using a Bluetooth keyboard.
I use an iPhone 6S Plus with 128GB running VoiceOver, of course. I tend to use a Logitech Keys-To-Go Bluetooth keyboard from the Apple Store and I am almost always wearing Apple EarPods.
Editing a text field in iOS has numerous keyboard shortcuts. The two I am referencing are the Option-DownArrow and the Option-UpArrow when editing any text field on the iPhone.
When editing a text field from a Bluetooth keyboard, the Option-UpArrow is supposed to move you up through the text, that is, going back toward the beginning of the text, by paragraph. The Option-DownArrow is supposed to move you down through a text field, that is, towards the end of the text field, by paragraph.
It was in the last couple of iOS versions that the keystrokes suddenly did not work as documented. The Option-UpArrow, when editing a text field, will now move to the beginning of the current paragraph. It will not move further back as it should. This first became a major problem, perhaps around 9.1. I use my iPhone as my primary text processing computer and this has been a real hindrance to easy editing. Apple Notes suffers from this bug, as do third party apps like Voice Dream Writer and Nebulous Notes. The error suddenly happened to all three apps at the same time some months ago.
The Option-DownArrow does still move down through the document towards the end, by paragraph, but I recently discovered that it had problems of its own. When you Option-DownArrow your way to the end of the text field, the focus will wrap around to the top of the text field and continue to move down from there. Focus used to stop at the end of the text field, which is the behavior you would expect and want.
There are a couple of notable exceptions. Pages and Mail on the iPhone still work as you would want.
I have let the 3rd party application developers know of this bug when it first showed up. As an old coder, I suspect it was a change in one of Apple's libraries that caused this problem to show up in multiple apps at the same time.
It is very easy to recreate the bug and I did just verify that it is still not working in Apple Notes, Nebulous Notes, and Voice Dream Reader when running iOS 9.3. I also just verified again that the correct functionality can be found in Mail and Pages. I used the text of this message as my test case. I have delimited my message with five asterisks.
I hope this helps,
morgan