The Accessibility Bugs Introduced and Resolved in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 for Blind and Low Vision Users

By AppleVis, 16 September, 2021

iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 have been released to the public. This post contains details of the VoiceOver, low vision, and braille bugs which we believe have been introduced in these releases; as well as details of the pre-existing bugs which we believe to be resolved.

As is our routine practice, each new bug has been given a severity rating; these ratings are based upon what we believe to be the implications for accessing and using features and functionality and the level of impact on the overall user experience, as well as whether or not there is an effective workaround for the issue. However, as these ratings are subjective, it is very possible that they may not reflect your own opinion or use case.

As we always stress, we can make no claims on the completeness or accuracy of our testing. We have only a small team of testers, and it is simply impossible for us to test all devices, configurations, applications, and use cases; this is even more important to note now as Apple's ecosystem continues to expand and the number of possible device configurations increases. Some of the bugs listed below will be specific to a certain device, configuration or use case. Consequently, it is entirely likely that you will not encounter all of what we list; and it is also probable that you will encounter bugs or regressions that we did not identify during our testing.

We strongly recommend that you read through this post and any replies before updating—as this will allow you to make an informed decision on whether to install iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 at the current time or to wait for a future release.

To help us ensure that the information on this page is as complete and accurate as possible, we would appreciate feedback from those who have installed iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 —both to confirm whether they are encountering the same problems (or have found workarounds), as well as to let us know of any additional issues that are not on this list. Of course, it’s even more important that you let Apple know of any additional bugs that you find (they already know about the ones currently listed here and are actively working on resolving them). This post explains why you should report bugs directly to Apple, as well as the best ways to do so.

With all of the preamble out of the way, here are the new bugs for blind and low vision users which we believe to be present in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15:

Serious Bugs

Apple Wallet will crash if you attempt to use any card, ticket, or pass other than the first one listed. For some people the crash will be immediate, for others it only occurs if you perform a swipe gesture after activating the other card. As a workaround for those who encounter an immediate crash, our experience suggests that whilst on this screen you should be able to use “Move up” from the VoiceOver rotor on the desired card, ticket or pass to temporarily move it to the top of the list. Unfortunately, in our own testing, this process hasn't always behaved as expected or been reliable.
The Wallet app crashes if you use the swipe gesture to navigate through cards, tickets, and passes listed on the main window of the app. As a workaround, our experience suggests that you can still explore the screen by touch and then activate the desired card.
The time picker used when creating or editing a scheduled Screen time downtime or app limit is not accessible with VoiceOver. Specifically, if you navigate to Settings > Screen Time > Downtime and enable “Scheduled”, the picker used to set the start and end times is not accessible, as is the picker used with setting app limits.
The Apple One subscription screen is not accessible with VoiceOver. Specifically, if you do not currently subscribe to Apple One and go to your Subscriptions screen through the App Store or Settings app, and then select the button to view the Apple One bundle options, the text on the page is not read by VoiceOver and most of the UI elements are either unlabelled or have meaningless labels.
if you have Safari configured so that its address bar is at the top of the screen, you cannot use a bluetooth keyboard or braille display to enter text in to the address bar.

Moderate Bugs

VoiceOver may not speak the names of apps when moving focus through the App Switcher. This issue can be resolved by disabling Reduce Motion at Settings > Accessibility > Motion.
Listen for “Hey Siri” typically does not work as expected when voiceOver is enabled and your device locked.
There are no braille display commands for the following, and no options for assigning these commands with a braille display keyboard: Quick Settings, moving in and out of Grouped navigation, or locking the screen.
When composing a lengthy email with the Apple Mail app using a braille display, random words will be inserted in the incorrect place.
It is not possible to edit existing alarms in the native Clock app when VoiceOver is enabled. For now, the simplest workaround is to use the VoiceOver rotor's Action menu to delete the alarm, and then recreate it with the desired configuration.
When attempting to add an existing photo to a message in the Messages app, the grid of available photos cannot be located or navigated by swiping, only by touch. Specifically, after double tapping on the button for the Photos app on the message composition window, a grid of available photos is displayed on the bottom part of the screen. This cannot be located by swiping. You can, however, locate by touch each photo in the grid, but having located one by touch you cannot then swipe to the next or previous photo.
It can be difficult to access the multi-tasking controls on iPad with VoiceOver after opening the menu. Specifically, the multitasking controls button is accessed in the status bar. However once selected, VoiceOver does not indicate that the menu is open, and you cannot simply swipe to enter the open menu. Instead you need to move off the status bar, and return to it to find the controls.
The window which shows you the available hardware keyboard commands on iPad does not work correctly with VoiceOver. Specifically, you can press and hold the Command key or the Globe key + M to bring up a window displaying all of the currently available keyboard commands. This window is arranged into columns, with headings such as System and Multitasking. While VoiceOver does read all elements in the window, it does not follow this column or table structure and the buttons don’t have a clear affect.
VoiceOver does not announce the selection status when adding people or apps to the allowed notifications list of a Focus mode.
When the Safari toolbar is collapsed to the bottom of the screen, VoiceOver finds UI elements which are not visually present and consequently do not behave as expected. Specifically, when you have Safari configured so that the address bar and toolbar are located at the bottom of the screen, you can use the VoiceOver rotor to ‘collapse’ this so that only the address bar is visually displayed. However, when swiping, VoiceOver will locate the controls such as ‘Tabs’ and ‘Share’ which are located on the now visually hidden toolbar. When double tapping on one of these ‘ghost’ buttons, instead of performing the expected function, the toolbar is expanded.
When using drag and drop to rearrange the position of a shortcut in the Shortcuts app, VoiceOver does not provide meaningful feedback whilst dragging regarding where the shortcut will be placed when dropped. Specifically, when in a folder of shortcuts and dragging a shortcut to a different position, as the shortcut is dragged VoiceOver announces feedback of its current position in the form of “Before Null” and “After Null”, where “Null’ should be the name of a shortcut.

Minor Bugs

When viewing an interactive notification from the Mail app, the context menu items “Delete” and “Mark Read” may on occasions not function when located by swiping. In these cases, performing a 3-finger swipe up on the screen appears to ‘drag’ these items in to view, which makes them work as expected..
After using “More” from the VoiceOver rotor's Action menu on a notification, VoiceOver users can locate when swiping UI elements which are not present visually on screen and do not behave as expected. Typically, this will be other UI elements which are on the Lock Screen or Notification Center such as notifications or playback controls. When double tapping on one of these ‘ghost’ UI elements, instead of performing the expected behavior, the interactive view of the selected notification will be dismissed.
When selecting the second app for a split screen setup on iPad, VoiceOver does not tell you if an app you're selecting does not in fact support multi-tasking. Specifically, after selecting the split screen option in the multi-tasking menu, you are returned to your Home Screen to select the app you want to share the screen with. Some apps are not supported, and if selected will simply open in full screen, but VoiceOver gives no indication of which apps are and are not supported.
Pressing and briefly holding the Globe key on a hardware keyboard to bring up the list of keyboard commands does not work properly when VoiceOver is enabled. Specifically, the Globe key, or FN on some keyboards, is now used as a modifier key. Pressing it while VoiceOver is disabled brings up a list of available keyboard commands. With VoiceOver enabled, it only briefly pops up and disappears again.
When using a hardware keyboard with an iPad, pressing Globe/FN + Control + Option activates the keyboard hints window, which is conflicting with the VoiceOver command to go to the first or last item when combined with the left or right arrow key. Specifically, as well as pressing and holding Command, or Pressing Globe + M to bring up the keyboard commands window, pressing Globe + Control + option does so too. Pressing these keys combined with the left and right arrow keys should take VoiceOver to the first or last item, and so the two commands are in conflict. Making sure to press down Control + Option first appears to help.
When selecting shortcuts in a folder in the Shortcuts app, VoiceOver does not speak the selection status of shortcuts. Specifically, when you have activated Edit mode and chosen “Select Shortcuts” from the context menu, VoiceOver will not announce when a shortcut has already been selected when you place focus on to it.
The button used to clear the Safari address bar is labelled “Close” rather than “Clear Text”.
When using the emoji search facility to find and insert an emoji in to a text field, when you double-tap on the desired emoji it will be inserted but rather than announcing the title of the emoji, VoiceOver will speak the last character that you typed in to the search field.
On the Power Off / Medical ID / Emergency Call screen, VoiceOver finds and speaks erroneous elements such as the word “Call” and the phrase “location.fill.radiowaves.left.and.right iPhone Findable After Power Off Forward” if invoked when you have an open app in the foreground.
On the Weather app's small widget, the high and low temperature information is spoken twice by VoiceOver. What's announced will be something similar to: “Check The Weather Widget LocationName, ,, 18°, , High of 19°, Low of 12°, High of 19°, Low of 12°.”
On the Weather app's small widget, the graphic that visually indicates to sighted users the current weather conditions is not recognised or announced by VoiceOver.
On iPod touch only, the option to show or hide Reader view is missing from the VoiceOver rotor's Action menu in Safari.

Additionally, we are aware of three issues that effect users of USB HID braille displays. The USB HID industry standard was announced in May 2018 with Apple being involved in its drafting, but Apple platforms may not yet officially support the standard.

Other Reported Bugs

The following bugs have not been encountered by any of our team, but we are aware of them being experienced by others:

VoiceOver may not speak the labels of all Actions available on the system-wide share sheet. We understand that when this occurs, VoiceOver will simply announce “activity” for the share sheet action rather than its title.
viphoana reports below that there is a serious issue in the Shortcuts app: “If you want to edit shortcuts using magic variables it became impossible with voice over. You can select the button to "add magic variable" but then none can be located. Adding normal variables in some actions is also impossible.”

If you encounter any additional VoiceOver, braille, or low vision bugs in iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, please let others know by posting a reply below. When doing so, please provide as much information as possible so that others know exactly what to expect; when and where the problem occurs; and any possible workarounds you have found.

Accessibility Improvements in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15

Our testing suggests that the following pre-existing accessibility bugs have been resolved or significantly addressed in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15:

If you encounter any additional fixes or improvements during your own use of iOS 15 or iPadOS 15, please let us know by posting a reply below.

Changes in Functionality or Behavior

As is common with major operating system updates, Apple has made some changes in functionality or behaviour in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. As sometimes these types of changes may not be discovered by some or can reasonably be mistaken as bugs, below are a list of the notable changes we are currently aware of:

One change in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 that we understand is by design rather than being a bug, is that VoiceOver will announce when a Focus mode is automatically enabled or disabled (for example at a scheduled time). This occurs even if you have speak notifications disabled and your device is asleep. If, like us, you believe that this is not the preferred or expected behavior, we would encourage you to email Apple's Accessibility Team and ask that they reconsider the current implementation.
A new feature on iPad is Quick Notes. Regardless of what you're doing on your iPad, you can access an existing note or a new note quickly via a number of methods - using an Apple Pencil or hardware keyboard, via the Control Center, or by mimicking the move of the Apple Pencil by swiping up from the bottom right corner. Currently, the last of these does not work with VoiceOver, but VoiceOver users can assign the “Quick Note” action to any Touch Gesture they prefer from Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Commands > Touch Gestures.
A nice addition to Safari is that VoiceOver users can now perform a 3-finger swipe down on the top part of a webpage to perform a page refresh.

If you know of other changes which you believe should be included here, please let us know by posting a comment below.

In Closing

We have been compiling these lists of new bugs for every major iOS release since iOS 7. In our opinion, although iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 introduce a number of new bugs for VoiceOver and braille users, they should be stable and usable updates for most use cases. One exception would be if you frequently use Apple Wallet with a selection of cards; tickets; and passes, in which case you may wish to delay updating. Reports from others in our community also indicate that the Shortcuts app has serious accessibility issues when creating or editing some shortcuts.

However, there are certain to be more issues discovered and shared; so, if you haven't already upgraded, we would strongly recommend that you take a few moments to read through any replies to this post before doing so. You may also want to consider that in recent years Apple has typically fixed a significant number of VoiceOver and braille bugs in the first couple of updates to follow major iOS and iPadOs releases.

When posting in the comments, we ask that you please keep discussion on-topic and related specifically to accessibility bugs introduced or resolved in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15. In the past, our announcement posts about yearly major iOS updates usually receive a significant number of replies; making it all the more important that readers be able to quickly navigate through the comments to find the information they need. Additionally, when posting, please remember that the decision about whether or not to install a software update is personal; and that everyone's situation is different and there is no right or wrong answer. Posts criticizing others on their upgrade decisions are not constructive and do nothing to add to the discussion.

Finally, we want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Apple's Accessibility Team for their timely response to most of the bug reports filed by our team during the beta cycle. As always, it's been clear from our experience that the Accessibility Team has strived to ensure that iOS and iPadOS offer the best possible experience to blind and low vision users.

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Comments

iOS 15 accessibility observations

Greetings. I've been using various betas of iOS 15 over the last couple of months and would like to share the following findings.
1. The Share Sheet bug confirmed.
VoiceOver announces the word "activity" for most, if not all, items on the Share Sheet, including the top recommendations and many of the items at the bottom. This happens to me on a regular basis -- at least 80 percent of the time I have to bring up the Share Sheet.
2. Issues with bringing up Siri with "Hey Siri" when the phone is locked.
With VoiceOver enabled and if the phone is locked, oftentimes attempting to bring up Siri either by saying the phrase "Hey Siri" and immediately asking something, or by saying "Hey Siri" and waiting for it to say something like "aha", fails to get the system to activate Siri. Simply put, I hear the tone indicating that Siri has encountered a failure, or VoiceOver simply reads the current time on the Lock screen. The phone has to be locked, I mean the screen should be turned off, in order for this to be duplicated. With VoiceOver turned off, Siri functions as expected.
3. Issues with opening folders and reporting the exact position on the Home screen.
Oftentimes VoiceOver doesn't consistently report the cursor position when folders are opened on the Home screen. Sometimes it remains silent, and more often it correctly reads the precise folder name.
4. App Store and app updates.
I don't know if this is a VoiceOver bug or if it is a change relevant to iOS, but VoiceOver no longer specifies how many app updates the App Store has when we reach its icon on the Home screen. With iOS 14, the number of app updates was indicated by the App Store icon and VoiceOver could announce it.
5. Issue inserting emojis from the Search window.
If you use the Search facility in the Emoji panel and double-tap on an emoji from the Result list to insert it, VoiceOver inserts the proper emoji but, with each double-tap, announces an irrelevant letter which has nothing to do with the name/description of the inserted emoji.

Not good apple, Very not good.

I’ve been using the beta for a month or so now and although the OS is pretty solid on the whole I’d say accessibility is getting larger holes and less of a polished feeling, in short I’d say stick with the previous OS if you want to be able to use your entire device. There isn’t enough new to put up with the bugs and holes in the OS IMHO. On a side note does Apple actually care about the thousands of £ or $ we spend on these devices? Frustrations are unacceptable, outright holes in capability should be considered show stoppers but they just don’t appear to put high priority on the user experience for VO users. Can you imagine the outcry if that list of functions was missing for regular users? Apple would be a laughing stock and their devices would be considered unusable. Why should we accept this level of nonsense? We pay too.

If you're a Chinese user then this upgrade will be great

Hi all ,
You may not understand that VoiceOver has always performed very poorly on Chinese keyboards. Specifically, when we input text, VoiceOver often gives out some candidates that are difficult to understand.So over the years we have been trying to contact Apple and provide our feedback.Finally, this problem was partially resolved on iOS15.VoiceOver modified the way 251 Chinese words are read aloud when typing.So if you are a Chinese user, I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.
Of course, the bugs mentioned in the original poster's article also exist here.And I found that the focus of VoiceOver on my iPhone XR often becomes unstable.
This is all I know.

The bug that grates most and is possibly indicative

For me, the standout bug from the above list was the button in Safari having the wrong VoiceOver label.

Is it serious? Heck no.

But, does it provide completely misleading information to VoiceOver users? Heck yes.

And, how long would it take to correct? My guess is less than 5 minutes, and that's probably allowing the engineer time to take a coffee break midway.

But, apparently this bug wasn't considered worthy of just 5 minutes by Apple. #fail

LOL, I love the hashtag.

I wanted to turn we pay too into #WePayToo but didn’t think it would do any good. Something has to change though and it seems like hash tags are how that happens these days.

Authy inaccessible in iOS 15 without screen recognition enabled

Ever since I upgraded to the iOS 15 beta, I have been unable to use the Authy app normally. VoiceOver acts like there are no elements on screen, and focus moves to the status bar. The only way I can use the app is to enable screen recognition. Screen recognition seems to work most of the time, but the PIN entry screen doesn't work correctly. Specifically, the 4 button is not detected as a button, so if your PIN contains a 4, you will have problems.
I submitted a bug report on this issue at the beginning of July, but Apple has not responded.

no wallet bug here.

I don't see the wallet problem in ios 15 here running the latest build.

Which of the wallet bugs?

Which of the two Wallet bugs is it that you aren't experiencing?

I can reproduce both here, but fortunately mostly use only the one card anyway.

I don't think of upgrading…

I don't think of upgrading to IOS 15 at this time simply because of the share sheet bug. I I sometimes use this to share somethings with friends and family etc, what will happen when I try to share something with someone? Do I have to tap on the apps one by one to see if I opened the correct app or not?
Very silly bug indeed.

@fatih Yes, you should

Here many of my apps, including What'sApp, are identified/announced as "button" in the Share Sheet. So basically yes, you should either tap on many of them or, if you don't happen to alter their position either automatically or manually, memorize their location. For instance, I know which app appears after "Mail", so despite not hearing its proper name I select it and move on. Very annoying to say the least.

Reading all in Safari will break and stop

1. visit a page in safari
2. using two finger swipe down to read all
3. to a certain point voiceover suddenly stop saying anything and the say all command is stopped

when iphone is booted, voiceover clicking the password field did

1. start up my iphone
2. when voiceover prompted that the iphone enter the lock screen to enter password, the keyboard did not come up
3. if i double tap the password field, keyboard did not appear

@Little Star I can no longer duplicate this

I experienced this bug with one of the earlier beta releases of iOS 15, but with recent betas and the current RC it works as expected on my 12 Pro Max.

Bug with VO quick settings?

VO presents all the options in the quick settings, (as can be evoked through 2 finger quadruple tap gesture), as value adjustable, all including those that are on/off toggles. Both double tapping as well as swiping work, that's great, but then, when one swipes up or down VO does not an-ounce the state of on/off. This becomes very confusing. Either toggles should be presented as toggles, or adjusting value should be correctly announced .

Hello, I am using the gm…

Hello,
I am using the gm version as well.
My phone is Iphone 8, so every time when my phone boot, i have to click the power button to lock the phone again and unlock again, then i can enter the password

Using voiceover with some third party app, voiceover focus trap

1. using some third party app
2. swipe right or left with one finger, voiceover focus trapped at the same element and did not move to the other element

shortcut app and alert

1. when I trigger a shortcut app that read file from cloud storage and play sound, shortcut will show an alert to ask for your permission.
2. but when voiceover read the alert, it will say something avfdlk24lkjlkjxfdlkj44343

conflicting voiceover command

I used to set two finger swipe left and right for other function under voiceover command
before I upgrade to ios 15 gm, I already knew that swipe left and right is occupied by the move into and out from group gesture, so I manually reset the voiceover command before upgrading.

I wonder if people did not reset these and upgraded, will they receive alert that new gesture conflicting with their customized command?

Sadly in voiceover command, if you select a gesture and click remove button at the bottom, it did not restore to the system defaul but to a blank status.

voiceover will ignore items in password page

1 open setting
2. click password
3. if you keep on swiping right with single finger, voiceover will pass through the autofill button, and land on the following elements.
4. at this point, if you swipe left with one finger, voiceover will land on the autofill button again.

both of them. which build…

both of them. which build number do you have?

pressing the back button vs performing the z-gesture

voiceover behave differently when you directly click the back button on the top left, and when you perform the go back "z" gesture.
1. i visited accessibility page under setting.
2. if i press the top left back button, voiceover will speak setting heading.
3. if i perform the z-gesture to go back from accessibility, voiceover will say accessibility button then say setting heading

Both 100% reproducible here sadly

These are both 100% reproducible on my own iPhone 12 Pro running the RC build, so I guess they are likely to be bugs which are specific to configuration or use case - possibly the types of items that you have added in Wallet.

In my case, I have a bank card and COVID pass.

The bank card is at the top of the list and works just fine. However, as soon as I double tap on the COVID pass to activate it, crash goes Wallet.

The same happens as soon as I attempt to swipe through the Wallet app itself.

very strange

I am able to move through all my cards. I have a starbucks card, 2 credit cards and a tesco clubcard.

The app limit time picker is also broken

As stated in the subject. In addition to the time picker when setting up downtime being inaccessible, this is also the case if trying to either create or edit an app limit.

As far as other issues go, I can't reproduce the share sheet one on my 2020 iPhone SE, but the wallet app does appear to be crashing for me if trying to switch cards

#wepaytoo

I wholeheartedly agree with using #wepaytoo. I do agree that we will have bugs. However, I also agree with the comments that accessibility is going down hill. What frustrates me the most is that braille issues have not been resolved. I’ve been experiencing braille issues since ios 11. I’ve emailed apple several times. It's a great disappointment that they are still present in ios 15. I feel that braille users were ignored. Frankly, I’d rather have no braille support at all than have the poor experience that Iam having. I’ve given up contacting apple. My efforts have been fruitless.

ni3 shi4 zhong1 gou2 ren2 ma5? Are you chinese?

Ni3 hao3! Hi!
If you are Chinese you can type with Wubi And you won't need to choose candidates at all.
If you are using pinyin, it is not comfortable for the blind user because you need to listen candidates and moreover you have to check the character descriptions.
And certainly it is a slow typing method.
If you are typing traditional characters Then you have to use cang jie keyboard instead of wubi 86.
But you can try wubi 98 or a new-century version.
I use wubi 86 and canng jie a little.
I love Chinese language and i spent a lot of time to solve problem to type any character while being blind.
So ... no problem with voiceover even in 14 iPadOs and iOs.
zai4 jian4 wo3 de5 peng2 you5!
Good-bye (see you later) my friend!

Anyone able to reproduce…

Anyone able to reproduce this?

Safari address bar at top. Connect bluetooth keyboard (I am using a magic keyyboard). When the keyboard is connected I am unable to edit the address field at top. If I switch off the keyboard or choose to have the address bar at the bottom Safari works as expected.

@Larry Yes, I got a confirmation report

A friend of mine who happens to use a Bluetooth keyboard can confirm this.

FKA Is Fixed (If You’re a Non-QuickNav User

The subject line pretty much tells the story with Full Keyboard Access (if on iOS/IPad OS 15 Public Betas at least )…

Using standard VoiceOver commands in conjunction with the arrows in apps such as Mail and Settings (with the space bar to interact with the item in question), it works quite nicely with those.

When it comes to those who rely on quick nav (and/or the CapsLock key as the VO modifier), then that’s where you’ll find conflicts.

I should note here as well, unlike with Mac OS and VoiceOver’s “Always Use Keyboard Commands To Navigate Through Web Pages” feature, there’s nothing like that in iOS/IPad OS as of now.

And that’s, all I have to share from here.

I'm also using the RC version of iOS 15

Hi,
I'm also using the RC of iOS 15. I have no experiences with the above bugs mentioned. everything's working fine on my end.

Braille bug with safari on iPad OS15

Hello all,
I have reported this bug during the beta of iPad OS15. When you open up safari, activate the address bar, you cannot use either BSI or a braille display to enter in text. The only way to input text into the address bar is to use the on screen keyboard or a bluetooth keyboard. Has anyone else seen this with the iPad OS betas or the RC version?

authy

From my testing of ios15, I got the authy bug as well. The authy developer might have to be contacted, or we could just wait for a authy update, that'll probably fix it.

Hard pass! Disabled autoupdate

Subject line pretty much says it all. Until now, I've just updated on the first day and learned how to deal with the bugs, but there are just too many this time that I know would be major issues to me. This is also going to postpone my purchase of a new phone. I don't need to learn how to say good-bye to the home button on top of all of this mess. The last version of iOS that I truly liked was 12, and as much as 14 does annoy me at times, I'd rather deal with familiar frustrations than update and face more serious issues. Especially since I have an iPhone 8 Plus, it sounds like there wouldn't be all that much benefit in my updating anyway. I will watch Applevis for future developments. Hopefully 15.1 or something will resolve enough of these issues that I'll be brave enough to take the plunge and update, but for now, I made sure that absolutely everything having to do with autoupdate is disabled. I'll be brave and update my apple TV's, though. After all, things really can't get too much worse on that front.

Re Apple TV’s

You had exactly the same thought as me re Apple TV’s. They really can’t get any worse. I’ve stopped using them for months now because they are so frustrating. I have 4 of them which is around £700 useless because they’ve messed up so much of the accessibility. Its really not funny because #WePayToo but they don’t appear to care, thats now my belief until they show different. They consider VO users second class citizens. When they start making devices reliable and not infuriating I’ll start believing they actually give 2 hoots.

Focus Getting Stuck in Third-Party Apps

I've seen this one, I thought it was just something to do with the app in question (Flight View). The focus appears to only get stuck in a particular place in a particular type of screen, so I'm not sure what to make of this.

Apple TV

I have three, and actually just purchased the 2021 model earlier today. My thinking, whethere it's truly accurate or not, is that as crappy as VO is on the Apple TV, it's still the most accessible option out there for most things. I briefly had a fire stick, and was not impressed; similarly, I wouldn't want to use the apps built into my smart TV. I know how to deal with most of the annoyances on the apple TV, and they aren't deal breakers like the bugs described in this post would be on my phone. Just my opinion, of course. I'm sure plenty of folks have found other accessible alternatives, but for my needs/skill level/whatever, I'm still OK with the Apple TV.

Seriously, again?

Do I really have to read through all this just to find out what the problems are in iOS 15? Can we please move the "Apple is evil, these bugs are unacceptable, my human rights are being violated" discussion somewhere else? Seriously. If they're deal breakers, wait. From what I remember, iOS 14's even still getting security fixes this year the way they do with Mac updates, so leave your devices where they are for a few months.

As for the bugs, yes they suck. Many of your sighted peers are putting up with them too. A lot of them seem to be in the bits of iOS and iPadOS that got seriously overhauled or in some cases completely rewritten, so it's not entirely surprising. Read some of the mainstream iOS and heck, even MacOS press and people are screaming about how bad this release is going to be. The ones I've particularly noticed are Shortcuts users and iPad users, and heaven knows what the outcome of the Safari rewrite are going to be. So please, if your device is essential, don't upgrade.

bug found with bluetooth keyboards and address bar is set to top

Do the following. Set address bar to top. 2 try using a bluetooth keyboard to enter a address. It doesn't work. This doesn't matter if vo is on or not.

Most blind people in China can't use Wubi input method

Hi, thanks for your interest in Chinese.What I have to tell you is that your idea is wonderful, but unattainable for most Chinese users.In order to use the Wubi input method it must be based on being able to write Chinese characters which is the script used by non-visually impaired people, however most blind people don't learn this in schools for the blind.That's why Pinyin input method is the only option for the vast majority of visually impaired users.I hope you understand what I'm saying.

Most blind people in China can't use Wubi input method

你好我的朋友！
Hi my friend!
It is very sad to sound many blind don't use the comfortable method to write Chinese Characters.
I am blind, totally blind.
I am using iPad and iPhone.
And I prefer typing in wubi 86, and it is really reliable way to type characters without doubts.
You don't need to know how to draw the character shapes.
But you should know how to build from basic shapes (214) the word.
More exactly to say, you have to learn by heart these key strokes.
Yes, you have to remember a lot of that keys.
Or you can use on screen keyboard on iPad or iPhone.
The usual people also have a lot of difficulties to memorize graphical shapes of these signs.
Pinyin is a very unreliable way to type,
Though voicover is messaging candidates. And you as user has to think or hope you have chosen a correct character by sound.
If you once chose an incorrect character, then voicover will suggest namely this character next time.
再见我的朋友！
Good bye my friend!
Post scriptum:
Dear admins do not remove this message, please, though I understand the topic is not suitable for this forum branch.
Thank you for your understanding.

voiceover report every icon on desktop as group

1. three fingers one tap on either icon on the desktop
2. voiceover may say Group Dropbox first row second column .....
hmm but actually icons here, none of them are group, why voiceover say it like this?

Hmm I am not sure. Because…

Hmm I am not sure. Because it did not stuck or get trapped when in ios 14, but get trapped in ios 15, so i think it is something related to voiceover or system.

maybe it's just me, but it looks like maps is messed up.

I wish I'd have tried this earlier, but I can't seem to get maps to give me the details of a route to a place. Sure, I can search and pick a route but I can't tell what the steps are anymore. It is a shame that Google Maps is now more accessible, but that's the truth.

Same problem with maps here.

Hi, I am unable to start the route. I have tried everything I can think of but no luck.

Happening in iOS 14 too

Latest version, not just 15

Selecting photos to add to a message.

Another one I wish I'd needed earlier: Open a new text message, tap apps, pick photos, swipe down past all the other apps until you get to the first photo. Voiceover restarts. Repeat until you're tired and then get a sighted person to finish the job.

I have found this bug at…

I have found this bug at another place, so I wonder if it is related to an external source trying to access the photo library?

In Safari navigate to a site where you have an option to upload files. For example, a profile picture. When you try to select a photo VoiceOver restarts until you give up :p

Group is not a bug

The three finger tap gesture was changed to give you more context, probably mainly due to the grouped navigation style you can switch to. The home screen icons are in fact grouped together, while the dock icons are a separate container. You'll see this verbosity on other controls as well - IE if you do the three-finger tap on the list of messages in Mail you'll also be told that's where you are, while the topmost section of most apps that includes things like search fields, back buttons and such is announced as the Nav Bar.

wanna update but authy kinda...

i'm up for updating, but the authy beeing inaccessible... kinda puts me off. Although i'm guessing once the dev updates the app to be combatable it'll fix things... Other than that though... most of the bugs don't affect me much, as I don't use apple plus etc.

Yes i do also notice this in…

Yes i do also notice this in mail app.
But I find it very confusing.
In ios 15, group means that you can move in and out with two fingers swipe left or right.
but here we have items associated with group but you cannot two fingers swipe left or right, which sound very confusing.
Those buttons at the top associated with nav bar is definitely correct.
but icons on the desktop associated with group is not correct, to my understanding.