Training Siri - tips for the vision impaired

By Jim Vanides, 9 February, 2021

Forum
Low Vision Accessibility on Apple Products

We are trying to set up Siri for a friend who is recently vision impaired. Normally, the process includes reading a few sentences to Siri so it can model your voice. In this case, our friend can't read what Siri is asking her to say - and if anyone is in the room coaching our friend, Siri gets confused as to whose voice it is modeling.

This can't be a new challenge! Any tips or suggestions?

Many thanks...

Jim

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Comments

By Jeff on Sunday, February 21, 2021 - 22:22

It's been a while since I've done this, but if I am remembering correctly, if Voiceover is enabled, it will speak the phrase and then you speak it back.

By Jim Vanides on Sunday, February 21, 2021 - 22:22

@Jeff - We haven't turned on Voiceover yet. But would that work during the Siri voice training?

By Jeff on Sunday, February 21, 2021 - 22:22

As I said, it's been a long time since I've done it, but I'm pretty sure it can be done with Voiceover enabled. In fact, as I said, I think that's the way it needs to be done if you cannot read the text on the screen yourself. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

By Mister Kayne on Sunday, February 21, 2021 - 22:22

I am assuming this has been asked for someone who has low vision; VoiceOver will surely help during the set up process; however, since the user has some useful vision, can they try magnification on the device. This might help them to read the text that Siri wants them to say during the set up process

By Joseph Westhouse on Sunday, February 21, 2021 - 22:22

Just wanted to confirm that yes, Voiceover does work during the Siri setup and reads the prompts, i.e. "Now say, "Hey Siri, what's the weather?" I know this because I just realized that somehow I never activated Hey Siri, or it got deactivativated, so I set it up like three days ago, using Voiceover and with no sighted assistance.

To a larger point, if your friend doesn't have enough vision to read the Siri setup prompts, I don't think they are going to find that their phone can do much for them without VO enabled anyway. Siri is helpful enough as a voice assistant but is no substitute for full access to your phone. I strongly suggest that rather than prioritizing Siri setup, you focus on getting your friend oriented to Voiceover and help them get comfortable using it.

By Jim Vanides on Sunday, February 21, 2021 - 22:22

In reply to by Joseph Westhouse

@Joseph - Thank you for the confirmation about using Voiceover during the Siri setup AND for the strong recommendation to get Voiceover going in general. I couldn't agree more.

I believe they finally got Siri trained by having someone else whisper the lines to our friend... Low tech, but it worked!

Jim