iOS 16, Should You Update as a Voiceover User?

As you are clearing your notifications, sometimes voiceover will read the last notification. You just erased as if it still were there. You know that it is not there because you deleted it. And, in fact, it's no longer there. Yet VoiceOver keeps reading that notification.
What I do is touch the screen and look for the next notification without swiping.
The same happens when you're using the app switcher.
You close an app, but voiceover keeps reading that app that you just closed.
I am still waiting for public beta five to be released. Don't know if it has been released already because I haven't gotten a notification.
But it will be interesting to see what is solved in that version and what continues to be an issue.

Did for it when public beta came out and no issues. Now is stable and with public 4 which should be out tomorrow is better. Still slow but doing well. Apparently iOS 16 for iPad will not be out sane time iOS for iPhone. That is nuts and do not like it.

My iPad 9 will not need it. They should release for those iPad that do not needed because they do not have the m1 or M2 chip.

I've experienced bugs with direct touch not working properly. Or at all, it's unusable in it's current state, so if you need to use apps that utilize direct touch, I'd say don't update yet. As for notification center, it works for me using the Siri voice. I do like the new lock screen features.

Can someone give me a hand as to how to get these to work?

Hi, guys! I'm wondering the same thing, but, from a different perspective. Are there any issues with IOS, Ipad-OS related to braille displays or braille on these platforms? If so, I'd like to know.

I have noticed that the focus button in the control center has no label. And it is not reliable in telling if a focus is active or not. If one is active turning it off seems to be hit and miss. That is a major annoyance.

Hi all. Have I understood this correctly from the original post? In iOS16, nothing happens when you double-tap on a notification with Voice Over, so you can't open the associated app from the notification? So the only way to open the relevant app is to go into the app manually and try to find the information or message that was in the notification? Are other people seeing this same issue? If so, I won't be upgrading until this is fixed. Thanks.

Hi. As the subject says, I'm not having this issue on my phone, which is on public beta 4. I can activate notifications without a problem. I was having some weird issues with direct touch, but those haven't been a problem for me since the last beta.

For me it’s not as serious as stated above. While double tapping on a notification does not reliably open the app first time, simply double tapping on it a second time does the trick.
The lack of the More option in the rotor is also annoying, although you can instead double tap and hold or triple tap to open that Context menu. Of course that is less discoverable if you don’t know to do it.
Regarding Focus in control centre, it’s surprising that they broke this quite late in the beta cycle. I find the easier way to switch a focus off is to use the new item at the bottom of the Lock Screen.

What is your phone model? I haven't experienced this. I've used the Pluto TV app the Fox2 Detroit app OOtunes Tunein and other apps. I would like to reproduce this if possible.

1. Activating notifications requires an extra double-tap after the first initial double-tap for a group of notifications. So I can live with it.
2. Audio/video playback on the web makes VoiceOver speech a bit slow, but it's nowhere as disastrous as to be labelled a huge issue - at least with my iPhone 13 Pro Max.
So, again in sharp contrast to the previous comment, I don't think iOS 16.0 is a "massive mess in terms of accessibility". Of course, using such so-called sensitive labels or subject lines is something and mentioning or reporting bugs for the sake of helping others is something else. Barring Braille which I don't use and can't test, I don't see any seriously deal-breaking access-oriented issues in iOS 16.0. And, for the sake of completion, I wish the App Manager didn't have focus issues with VoiceOver. Yet again, it's more of an annoyance not a serious regression.

The high quality Allicin voice has been my preferred voice for many years. Now it sounds so terrible I can't use it on my iPhone 8 that is running the iOS 16 public beta. I believe other voices have the same strange distortion, but I'm not as used to using them. I've started using Eloquence even though I don't want it, because at least it isn't too weird with the disgusting sound profile they've given voices now. I can't be the only one with this problem. Right? No way am I downgrading my iPhone 13 with this problem.

@Vash Rein, Do you expect people to agree with you without first being able to duplicate your reported issues? No one wants to hurt you unless we define the verb "hurt" differently. All of us should report issues to Apple instead of seeking "camaraderie" on forums. As far as I see it, Your comment with the subject "Just generally a massive mess in terms of accessibility" didn't ask for any sort of assistance - you just concluded "It’s really really bad this year." Sorry, but I don't think "It’s really really bad this year." And, last but not least, I haven't seen very few, if any, instances of harsh disagreements or attacks on AppleVis to make such lurid conclusions.

The decision is all yours. Take care.

Holger, as I've said on another post on which you commented, You seem to be a bit demanding. The best thing you can do is to send feedback and report bugs, just like everyone else is doing. Don't like something? Work to have it changed. Submit that feedback to developers. And for the love of all that's good, be patient. No one likes a whiner.

And with that, I too would like my account on this site deleted if at all possible. IF this is what to read when I visit these forums for resources, I'd rather just not. Best wishes to those who will continue to use this site.

Hey all,

to begin with this was when I looked at the first dev beta of iOS 16, so things might have changed by now.
Back when i tryed the beta every voice was sort of studdery when reading long text. It would put huge pauses after symbols like a comma, periot and what not. Unlike iOS 15 where reading of books with VO was pritty smooth and, to use an analogy was basically galloping along a lush field on horseback, in iOS 16 this turned into a bumpy ride with uneaven ground, tree routes in your way and low hanging branches.
Hey, don't judge me, it's the first thing that came to mind :D.

so, did that behaviour change or is it still the case?

So, just let me get this straight for a second.
You want all iPads that are not stage manager compatible to receive the update to iOS 16.0 and only the iPads that are in fact stage manager compatible should receive the update to iOS 16.1 later on in the year?

Sorry but from a business perspective this doesn't make any sense. Why have parts of the lineup with iOS 16.0 and the others with the current iOS 15 build till 16.1 is out and the ones that had 16.0 before could update to that version anyway?
This would be super inificient to manage and possibly take more work hours than needed, so the update for all iPads to 16.1 later on and jumping iOS 16.0 completely is the most logical and easy step for all partys involved.

So it makes more sense to punish those of us who can not use stage manager? We have to deal with beta because of that. Maybe they need to hold off on release it until stage manager is fix and those of us just deal with it! What business deal is that!!!!

@Holger You don't have to deal with the beta. You actively choose to install buggy software. I would understand if you are annoyed with a release being buggy, but installing beta software is entirely on you.

Hi all. These issues are not major deal breakers for me. The notifications thing is minor but I can deal with that. I want to test it and play around with new voices. How is voiceover behavior with lock screen customizations? Work arounds for customizations? This is what I'm most excited about because it is long over due in my opinion.

Those of us who uses iPad without M1 or M2 chip will not able to use it. iOS 16 is now F instead of a and next RC. Instead of having iOS out for my iPad I have to deal with the issues that my iPad does not even use.

It is my first time beta testing iOS and I have enjoyed it very much.
Sure, there are some issues to be fixed but they are not showstoppers.
The experience has been great.
I don't see the reason why we have to get so demanding or stress over these things.
if we decide to participate in this program, we have to be very aware that we will encounter bugs, some bad, and others not too bad.
It is like they say: if you cannot stand the heat, do not enter the kitchen.
In my case, I have noticed that I cannot delete some of the Siri voices I have downloaded for the rotor languages.
I am constantly switching between Spanish, English and Italian.
If I want to select a Siri voice, for either Spanish, or Italian, VoiceOver will switch back to the default voice of that language.
I have submitted reports to Apple, and, in time, I know that they will fix it.
For now I am using other voices, but I honestly have never considered the idea of using eloquence because, in my modest opinion, eloquence does not sound good to me.
I am glad we have different options to choose from and for the same reason I am happy for those who love eloquence.
In the meantime, I will just keep reporting to Apple whatever issues I find and, hopefully, they will be fixed soon.
If anyone asked me if I think iOS 16 is worth it, I will say that definitely it is.

Direct touch is still not working properly. I have a feeling this just isn't going to be fixed before full release since we're only a couple weeks away.

Subject says it all. Despite Apple updating my bug report with words to the effect they think they have a fix and it may now be working nada. So suspect this won't be fixed in time for the release either. Oh and for me at least this is a major bug and whilst not a total show stopper it isn't good.

From time to time there is a little issue with focus but, most of the time, app switcher works just fine.
Not a big deal for me.