Apple Vision Accessibility: the AppleVis Report Card

We are thrilled to unveil our inaugural Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card, which provides valuable insights into the experiences and opinions of visually impaired community members who rely on VoiceOver, Braille support, or the low vision features on Apple devices.

To gather the ratings and comments contained in the report card, we conducted a comprehensive survey where participants rated their experience using Apple's various platforms with the available vision accessibility features on a scale of 1 to 5. Additionally, we invited participants to provide detailed written feedback and suggestions for enhancing Apple's vision accessibility features and user experience. The survey also included questions that assessed Apple's performance in addressing vision-related bugs, as well as the new vision accessibility features added in 2022.

The report card below presents a summary of the survey results, showcasing the areas where Apple excels and where there is room for improvement. It also includes a selection of participant comments, providing further insight into the specific challenges and opportunities related to Apple's vision accessibility offerings.

We hope that our report card will spark productive and inclusive conversations about the current state of accessibility on Apple devices for visually impaired users and influence the company's future roadmap.

Before we present the report card, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who participated in our survey. The overwhelming number of thoughtful and well-considered ratings and comments we received surpassed our expectations and made the Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card both meaningful and constructive.

We carefully reviewed and appreciate all the comments provided in the survey, and we regret that we were unable to include more of them in our final report card. However, with so many responses, it was necessary to condense the feedback to provide a concise and representative overview of the results. Everyone's contributions were invaluable, and we couldn't have achieved such insightful results without the help and time from so many in our community. Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us.

Report Card

Section 1a: VoiceOver Features

• iOS: 4.5 (Most frequent rating: 5)
• iPadOS: 4.2 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• macOS: 3.6 (Most frequent rating: 3)
• watchOS: 4.1 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• tvOS: 3.5 (Most frequent rating: 3)

Selected Comments on VoiceOver Features

Tyler wrote: “While Apple has come up with a lot of interesting ideas and features over the years, there are a number of bugs and inconsistencies in their platforms that, when unaddressed, gradually detract from the user experience. Specific examples include:”

• “While Siri could be quite useful for augmenting the user experience of Apple products, its continued unreliability compared to other voice assistants, as well as its unpredictable behavior in supported third-party apps can make using it very frustrating.”
• “On iOS, VoiceOver can use machine learning to attempt to describe images. However, there are times where VoiceOver describes verbosely, or where I wouldn't expect an image description, such as occasionally describing "Blue sky" when focusing on apps on the Home Screen. While good image descriptions can be helpful for blind people to interpret the world around them, I think further refinement is needed so that useless or superfluous information is not given.”
• “In macOS Ventura, Apple introduced Text Checker, a feature that identifies errors in typed text, such as misspellings and repeated spaces. However, there are still several bugs and shortcomings in this feature, such as the arrow keys not working as expected after selecting an error in the menu, errors outside the immediate text field being detected when using it in Safari, and certain types of errors, like capitalization, formatting, and grammar not being reliably detected.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Overall, the feature set is perfect for someone who is either working or enjoying leisure time. There are a few things that could be improved, but overall, I'm able to hold down a job, keep up with personal affairs and manage my life with the features on macOS and iOS.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “My biggest frustration is with iPadOS, where I feel VoiceOver, while solid like its iPhone sibling, could be far better, but has been neglected. The iPad has become more and more powerful, and has fantastic hardware accessories like the Magic Keyboard, yet VoiceOver can't utilise it properly. Basic screen reader functionality like first letter navigation, and an easy to use way of jumping to different sections of an app are still missing. The fact that you still can't navigate a spreadsheet properly with the keyboard is appalling.”

wiljames wrote: “I would recommend Apple implement a tutorial similar to what TalkBack offers its new users.”

Chris wrote: “VoiceOver on iOS seems to be generally more polished and receives more features. Meanwhile, macOS has been stagnating for years, though this is hopefully changing for the better if the trend started in Ventura continues. It would be great to get more productivity features on both platforms, such as the ability to customize speech or play sounds instead or in addition to speaking different element types. For instance, it should be possible to configure VoiceOver to play a special sound to indicate a control type such as a button, or play two distinct sounds to quickly indicate if a checkbox is checked or unchecked.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “VoiceOver on tvOS feels convoluted, with two different "navigation styles", and various controls that make it more complex than it needs to be.”

Cheyanne wrote: “I really like the many ways we now have to get to our VoiceOver settings.”

Adam Samec wrote: “I think it is the biggest shame that, as opposed to iOS, Apple does not invest so much into the accessibility of macOS. Especially I miss better responsiveness and robustness of Word and Excel on Mac. Also, I can imagine a better support of OCR integrated into VoiceOver on macOS, or better accessibility of Contacts app in particular. On the other hand, what I find more efficient in macOS as opposed to JAWS or NVDA in Windows, is the way of reading of messages in the Mail app, which is more responsive and less verbose as one has the ability to read only message subjects or message snippets one by one, which saves time especially when reading threaded conversations, or when finding a particular message by its subject.”

Scott Davert wrote: “The amount of voices available, the number of features in the screen reader and the fact that Apple continues to role out more functionality is to be commended. Getting Eloquence as a TTS was a great move!”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I love VoiceOver, but I do find it frustrating when these features are impacted by operating system updates and then not addressed for numerous updates. And, sometimes, a feature that is impacted by an OS update doesn't seem to ever get attention again. For instance, moving to the top of an open folder with a gesture. It used to work, but has not done so in quite some time. Understandably, some of this may be user error, but it is less consistent than I would prefer. Still, the feature set of VoiceOver does work rather well in most circumstances and I am grateful to have one device that does almost everything I need.”

Section 1b: VoiceOver User Experience

• iOS: 4.2 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• iPadOS: 4.0 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• macOS: 3.3 (Most frequent rating: 3)
• watchOS: 3.9 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• tvOS: 3.4 (Most frequent rating: 4)

Selected Comments on VoiceOver User Experience

An anonymous commenter wrote:

• “iPhone: Mostly good, some issues with skipping focus with Braille which has led me to look elsewhere though, on the whole, it feels well integrated with iOS and I find it pretty reliable aside from minor bugs popping up from time to time.”
• “iPad: The external keyboards and VoiceOver do not work together. They may for a time, but keys stop working and, any keyboard aside from the Apple Magic Keyboard, e.g. the Logitech slim folio, does not allow VoiceOver to sleep when the iPad is closed. e.g., VoiceOver keeps talking despite, I think, the screen being off. Apple was made aware of this issue over a year ago but has not resolved it. For this reason I returned the iPad. Aside from that, it is very much the same story as the iPhone, their operating systems being so similar, barring the keyboard capabilities, or lack of, on the iPad.”
• “Mac: '"Safari not responding"... Safari on my M1 MacBook Pro 14 inch is, at times, utterly unusable. This is a persistent issue that has been around for years. Other issues include losing focus in file lists in Finder, erratic behaviour in Mail, poor implementation of accessibility in Music, TV and Podcasts, lack of built in OCR, poor support for Terminal, and, in general, an exceedingly convoluted way of interacting with frames and fields and other such containers. Unless we know what each type, it's a case of extensive exploration in and out of elements with a rather awkward keyboard shortcut. Why we have to rely so heavily on the VO shortcut key, I don't know. 99 % of Windows interactions do not require the use of the NVA key or narrator key. I know that it is possible to use quick keys, but it's just another thing to toggle on and off in what is, quite honestly, a mess. I realise macOS is a highly graphical interface, making it harder to find easy ways of parsing information to us, but the accessibility of the iPad and iPhone completely outstrips that of VoiceOver on Mac. The issue is, I need Mac for work and more power user based activities.”
• “Apple Watch: It's fine. A bit awkward to use in general, VoiceOver is still a bit laggy, really I only use it for its notifications and health data, i.e. I rarely use it as an input device, if ever. I'd love to see an Apple Loop without screen that vibrates with notifications and tracks workouts... But that's off topic.”
• “Apple TV: VoiceOver isn't consistent over apps, this is the issue. Getting to turn on audio description is mostly luck in the Paramount and HBO Max app. I'd like to have a system-wide ability, with shortcut, to turn on audio description for all apps or turn it off rather than having to do it on an app by app basis, outside Apple TV. Still don't understand why we need focus and navigation, again having multiple modes of exploration just over complicates things. Just have one mode and a tone for non interactive blocks of information. We DON'T WANT modes. I always think of the old person test... As mean as that sounds. Sighted users of Apple products have a very shallow learning curve. Blind users have a very steep one which isn't consistent between products.”

“My main hope is for VoiceOver on Mac to be scrapped and for Apple to start over knowing where the OS is headed and what it can now do. VoiceOver feels like an 2010 app on 2023 machines. Where is this amazing power boost with the M series? Again, as amazing as it is we can use these devices, we rarely get the benefits of new devices, better screens, faster processors etc. VoiceOver on Mac remains deeply broken.”

Jenna Pepper wrote: “A competent and approachable experience that is frequently marred by quirks, bugs, and broken features that are made all the more frustrating when the company that makes them ignores the complaints from its disabled users.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “VoiceOver responsiveness could still be improved for watchOS. Whilst a fair amount of improvement has been done, there are still delays in some parts of the interface that coupled with VoiceOver focus loss issues, can cause the experience of using watchOS to be frustrating at times, the key area would be the Workouts app.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I have been disappointed with the VoiceOver experience on watchOS 9. Sometimes, VoiceOver will stop speaking for no reason, and the only way I can resolve this issue is to press and hold the digital crown and power buttons for 30 seconds. Sometimes, it takes several seconds for VoiceOver to start behaving as normal. I changed my default voice to Lee on watchOS 9, and sometimes, when charging the watch, the voice will revert back to the male Siri voice, which was my default voice prior to watchOS 9. I have to repeatedly change the voice back to Lee, which is my preferred default voice, and I find this extremely annoying.”

An anonymous user wrote: “I find VoiceOver for iOS to generally work quite well, although there are some longstanding bugs that don't seem to get fixed. The major bug that everyone comments on and notices, is the jumpiness of focus. The user might flick to or touch an item on the screen, only for focus to randomly jump somewhere else. This has been in iOS forever, and fixing this one bug would make many people very happy. Otherwise, I find using VoiceOver to be very consistent overall, and little things like the rotor defaulting to actions in apps like Mail, make common tasks faster and easier.”

Graham wrote: “The Mac sadly has fallen way behind in terms of it's usability with VoiceOver over the past few years. So much so I hardly ever turn mine on. My MacBook needs replacing, and I'd happily fund it's purchase if Apple addressed the many issues with VoiceOver that frequently get covered on this site. Yes things are in the main accessible but usable is another matter. It can take so much longer to accomplish tasks on my MacBook than in Windows and the number of key presses and commands are way less. Very sad as I was one of the early adopters of macOS X.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “The experience itself is pleasurable and less stress-inducing than JAWS. I use both for work and can make an honest comparison. Plus, the Alex and Siri voices are the best in the industry in my opinion.”

Ishkabibble wrote: “The VoiceOver experience on macOS is hampered by all the bugs and stability issues Apple has let accumulate over the years. iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS are more stable by comparison, although there are still many bugs that have not been fixed for years. All these operating systems have good accessibility fundamentals, but bugs and a lack of meaningful updates (on macOS) make the experience worse.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Using Apple TV is a challenge. VoiceOver does read but controlling via the touchpad on the remote is difficult. Modes keep changing and you almost never get where you thought you would.”

jeffmentor wrote: “As a totally blind person, VoiceOver is so easy to use and reliable that I have become totally dependent on it. Therefore, I am able to make excellent use of many of the features and apps on my iPhone. These capabilities have allowed me to become much more independent and productive as a blind person.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Using a Mac offers great advantages if you're in the Apple eco system, but for real work, it's just not worth it. VoiceOver can be sluggish, full of bugs, and it's laborious to get things done in the likes of Office apps. When I'm just doing email, basic text editing, or audio editing, I love it.”

mr grieves wrote: “VoiceOver on the Mac has all the features it needs. But it is an infuriating and unpredictable mess. Sometimes just switching a tab in Safari can feel like an impossible task as it gets stuck on the wrong tab yet again, or refuses to give focus to the first heading in the document. Text editing has many bugs - sometimes it reads text one way, sometimes another, sometimes the arrow keys won't even move around properly. I constantly have to Cmd+Tab twice, turn VoiceOver off and on, turn QuickNav on and off, restart apps, just to get it to behave. I would have zero confidence bringing a Mac into a job interview. First party apps are often unpleasant to use and involve dipping in and out of things just labeled "Collection". If the bugs could be fixed, VoiceOver on the Mac would be amazing, but it often drives me to tears of frustration. Activities are a great feature, but promise a little more than they deliver. VoiceOver on the iPhone, on the other hand, is a joy to use. There are still some inconsistencies - text editing here is also a bit weird and there are plenty of bugs that keep cropping in with new releases. VoiceOver on the Watch is pretty good, but I have found a number of places where it just won't speak and clicks. E.g. I was trying to use Apple Pay and it wouldn't tell me what I was paying for, but I could double tap and pay successfully. And in some apps it can be really fiddly to scroll with VoiceOver.”

Scott Davert wrote: “I was hoping to use an iPad as a computer replacement, but couldn't do it because of the challenges associated with using a Bluetooth keyboard or Braille display reliably. The larger the document, the more challenging it is to manipulate the text reliably and with any sort of efficiency. Full keyboard access is a nice idea, but it does not work well with VoiceOver. Focus issues, keyboard commands not working and document navigation are the challenges that need to be overcome before the competition overcomes their challenges and takes customers away.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “The iPad works great for basic tasks like consuming video and web browsing, I use it every day. However try to do more, especially with a hardware keyboard, and you quickly discover its limitations.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Focusing on the Apple Watch-- I find the experience lacking. I do wear mine all day and all night, except when I charge it during my morning coffee, but I really wish I had features that allowed for functionality like "read all." And, the screen often shuts down, stops talking, when I wish it would stay active. I would not give up my Apple Watch, and do intend an upgrade from my 4th generation watch, but I'd like to feel I had more of an iPhone VoiceOver experience with the watch.”

Adam Samec wrote: “Conceptually, I like the overall philosophy of macOS and VoiceOver maybe more than that of Windows, the way one can switch between apps and windows. In macOS is for me a bit more efficient. I am also in favor of the application menubar, and richness, intuitiveness and consistency of keyboard shortcuts in macOS, whereas in Windows, the menubar has gradually been replaced by ribbons. What I also like in macOS is the consistency of the user interface which has been proved to be designed well since long time ago and hasn't need a revamp like that of Windows which is changing every two years or so.”

David wrote: “Regrettably, my evaluation of the current state of the VoiceOver experience is dominated by two major issues: the “Safari not responding” bug on macOS and the unstable VoiceOver focus on iOS. These problems have a considerable and detrimental impact on my user experience daily. Furthermore, the length of time these issues have existed raises significant doubts about Apple's capability and commitment to addressing them. Consequently, I cannot recommend a Mac to anyone who would rely on VoiceOver and find myself keenly observing the progress of TalkBack on Android.”

Section 2a: Braille Features

• iOS: 3.9 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• iPadOS: 3.8 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• macOS: 3.3 (Most frequent rating: 3)
• watchOS: 4.3 (Most frequent rating: 5)
• tvOS: 3.4 (Most frequent rating: 4)

Selected Comments on Braille Features

Diana Brent wrote: “I use Braille almost exclusively on my iPhone and find it excellent; however, I am concerned every time there is an update that something will get broken and it often does. Examples having now to use Option enter to enter return in several apps like Message, or the message automatically sends.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I love Braille Screen Input on my iPhone and iPad, and use this feature all the time as it allows me to enter text more quickly and easily.”

Jerry Berrier wrote: “I was never able to get the hang of Braille Screen Input.”

viphoana wrote: “The features are great. The implementation less so. I regret that tvOS does not support the same displays that are supported on iOS. I am thinking of Brailliant BI 40X and the HID protocol.”

Matthew Robinson wrote: “In my experience, the VoiceOver features across Apple's ecosystem are excellent; however, it seems like VoiceOver on macOS does not get as much attention, especially in Pages and in Braille features generally. Three years ago, I was able to use the cursor routing buttons on my BrailleNote Touch + to move the cursor to a point in a document so I could edit it. Now when I do this, from the perspective of the Braille display my MacBook Pro appears to freeze, and Pages actually ceases to respond for a moment. Additionally, I am no longer able to insert incremental page numbers where I want them with VoiceOver without pressing down on the trackpad and hoping that I'll get the Insert Page number button again, at which point I need to press VO-Shift-F2 to go to a window not indicated by VoiceOver to be able to specify how the pages should be numbered. Even then, VoiceOver glitches and will not stop without me quitting the document, and then I have to shut down or restart the computer for the document to go back to normal, or else insert page numbers in this non-intuitive manner with speech turned on. As an avid Braille user, this is immensely frustrating and time-consuming. Finally, I used to be able to log into my Mac using keystrokes that make sense; now, while I am still able to log in, in my experience this requires input that would throw off a beginning user.”

Sandra wrote: “Braille support for languages other than English should be improved. German Braille input in Grade 2 Braille doesn't work properly, because iOS doesn't use a Braille table that is able to backtranslate German Grade 2 Braille correctly. It would be great if Apple either improved the existing tables so that backtranslation works correctly or bought a license of RTFC, which is able to process German Grade 2 Braille correctly.”

Scott Davert wrote: “The amount of features available for Braille users is fantastic and should be a model for other manufacturers. The simple act of deleting emails is still something the competition can't seem to allow the user to do reliably. However, text input with a Perkins-style keyboard remains challenging and has been for many versions of iOS. Commands should be developed for devices such as the Mantis q40 so that, for example, a user can access their announcement history through an equivalent command to space with N on the Perkins-style keyboard. Like with the Bluetooth keyboard experience, though, editing longer documents remains unusable.”

Section 2b: Braille User Experience

• iOS: 3.7 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• iPadOS: 3.5 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• macOS: 3.2 (Most frequent rating: 3)
• watchOS: 4.2 (Most frequent rating: 5)
• tvOS: 3.6 (Most frequent rating: 4)

Selected Comments on Braille User Experience

Jenna Pepper wrote: “A frustrating, neglected feature with bugs, slowdowns, and dropped connections. Besides Braille screen input, which has its own share of problems, I don't use it unless I have to. I had to drop a math course because of how bad Braille support for macOS was.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “It's highly disappointing that Braille bugs in iOS and macOS seem to get little attention and seem to be extremely low on the priority list for bug fixing.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “The experience is made significantly worse each time a new Braille or VoiceOver bug appears, simply because there are bugs existing in the OS for a long time. Translation using a Braille display can get quite tiresome when the system translates when it should not etc. I very much look forward to Braille support being taken more seriously and for bugs to get squashed.”

Curly wrote: “I'm giving the Braille experience a 3/5 on iOS and iPadOS because of the increasingly frustrating bugs, of BSI crashing, and Notification Center disconnecting Braille displays, and the editing commands and enter key not working.”

Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 wrote: “Wow, I have a lot to say. First off, I'm glad that they have it. I'm glad I can just hook it up to Bluetooth, no need for extra drivers! So simple. However, I do have some concerns. First off, I feel like Braille gets enough attention in bug reporting and testing. Plus, it seems like like every time a new version of iOS and iPadOS comes out, especially the major versions, it seems like Braille gets hit the hardest. Examples include: When hitting the enter key, it brings up a context menu instead of doing a new line. Braille displays freezing, dropping or both on Bluetooth connections Random focus jumping in Mail app. While some of these bugs have workarounds, some do not. Some of the workarounds, like writing out the text of the body of an email in another app like notes, and then copying/pasting it into the body of the email, is very counter-productive. I think more team members and beta testers that are experts in Braille and that use Braille every day. The other thing I'm worried about, is the time it takes to get these bugs fixed or somewhat fixed. The Mail bug is a prime example. I think back in iOS 10, a bug got introduced where if you entered a new line, focus would jump right back to the top of the screen. It wasn't until some time in iOS 15 or so that this bug finally to my relief, got fixed! While I understand that these bugs are more complex, it still concerns me about the timing. Particularly because I use Braille as part of my daily set-up, and as my daily driver, and, it seems like new bugs get added in almost if not every single time. As a user, who depends on her devices to get through the day, and expects and has to use them for multiple things like reading and writing emails, attending conference calls, communicating with friends, family, and colleagues, I worry about updating my devices more than ever before. One more concern I have, is that from my experience, I don't think your Accessibility Support Team has a lot or decent training on Braille displays. They're good people, who 99% of the time, know what they're doing, and are helpful, patient among other things! While they have enough training to know that you can use these products with Apple hardware, when it comes to issues, or how to do certain things, with your display on your Apple hardware, I feel like there should be more training and or resources for them to access regarding this. Plus, why not hire more if not some people who use Braille with Apple products every day? Those are some the best people to provide support for these types of things!”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “On iPadOS and iOS, there are frequently issues with navigating books on Kindle and Apple Books. The focus frequently jumps when the page is advanced when panning, and it is hard to then find the top of the page. Reading in Braille is not a very enjoyable experience. As well, when reading in Braille on the Kindle app, line breaks are not indicated by having to pan to the next line, instead, the text is just read in a continuous line which makes following a story and particularly following dialogue hard to do with Braille.”

sockhopsinger wrote: “For the most part, Braille screen input works well. However, many times when you perform a gesture you know to be correct, in the latest versions of iOS you do not always get the interactions you are trying to achieve. For instance, many times swiping back with two fingers will take input out of Braille, and sometimes you sometimes get a menu popup when erasing by a letter that will delete text when you swipe right with a finger. To this point, Braille screen input cannot be wholly trusted as it used to be.”

Ishkabibble wrote: “I mostly use Braille on macOS, which has a lot of glitches that make Braille usage difficult. macOS will often refuse to connect to displays via Bluetooth, and when connections are successful focus issues, connection delays, and constant pop-ups/flash messages make it difficult to use a Braille display exclusively.”

Rachel wrote: “As a competent user of Braille, I thoroughly enjoy being able to connect my Braille display to my phone, mute VoiceOver, and work discreetly, safe in the knowledge that what i am reading/writing will not be overheard by others. Braille is my preferred working format, so it's excellent that the accessibility features on the Apple product I use on an every day basis will allow it to remain that way.”

Scott Davert wrote: “First, congrats to Apple on being the only company producing smart watches that even considers Braille users! Second, bravo for supporting the new HID standard!”

“Now for the things that need improving. It is my feeling, after beta testing for 11 years, that Apple should pay more attention to Braille access disconnected from speech access, though even some simple testing prior to each beta release would help. If a hearing individual had a Braille display connected, for example under iOS 16.3, one could have easily heard the sound iOS makes when a Bluetooth connection between the Braille device and iOS device is dropped. It didn't require even knowing any Braille to spot this. It would also be helpful if VoiceOver features that are developed were also tested and considered for Braille display users prior to launch. Here are a few examples of features, when publicly released, did not have a way to work for Braille display users. iOS 15: Bluetooth keyboard commands and touch gestures were available for the following. However, no Braille keyboard command existed, nor did the option to map new commands for the following functions: Activate VoiceOver Quick Settings, and the ability to move in or out of groups when this navigation was available. Also under iOS 15.3.1, a release never given to beta testers, major panning concerns developed. The same is true of the VoiceOver Announcement bug where the Braille display and phone would freeze. This began happening only in the iOS 15.2 public release, once again showing that the internal testers didn't try using Braille with the release. If stopping a public release can't be done, which is understandable, it would be appreciated if users could be warned. Now let's talk iOS 14: The new feature introduced called "screen recognition" did not turn on or off even if you assigned a Braille display keyboard command to it. Speak Detected Text, a feature introduced several iOS versions previously, also became unusable with a Braille display. The VoiceOver announcement feature, which is how this information was conveyed to Braille users, did not send the information to a Braille display after the Screen Recognition feature expanded in iOS 14. It was also not working from iOS 11, when the feature was introduced, until iOS 13. iOS 14 broke it again, but there was a more immediate fix.”

“I could keep going, but I think these illustrate my point. All of the above aside, it would seem quite unfair to me to not acknowledge what Braille access has done for me. As a DeafBlind individual, iOS and other platforms from Apple have given me a world of independence I didn't think was possible.”

Section 3a: Low Vision Features

• iOS: 3.9 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• iPadOS: 3.5 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• macOS: 3.5 (Most frequent rating: 3)
• watchOS: 3.0 (Most frequent rating: 3)
• tvOS: 3.0 (Most frequent rating: 3)

Selected Comments on Low Vision Features

Jamie Olson wrote: “Smart Invert does not work across iOS all the time. Fonts need to be larger in reader view in Safari and News. Differentiating topics and headings with color contrasts sometimes renders the lower contrast text too dark and hard to read. When Siri puts a response on the screen it is IMPOSSIBLE to read using smart invert, black text on brown background. Highlight colors are sometimes red on a black background. This cannot pass WCAG contrast guidelines.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “When I gave up on using my phone with my eyes and turned some of the low vision features off, several apps that I couldn't previously use suddenly started working because the enlarged text no longer forced content off the screen or otherwise disabled necessary buttons and features. It's frustrating that turning accessibility features off made the phone more accessible.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Windows 10 and 11 have really started to add a good variety of low vision accessibility features, and have surpassed Mac in features and functionality. Especially since ZoomText is no longer available on Mac, it's important to include types of features found in this product with the built-in features. Zoom for iOS and iPadOS is OK, but I really think the default zoom in and out gestures need to change. The double tap with 3 fingers to toggle Zoom on and off is fine, but the double tap and drag is clunky and difficult for many new users to learn. Why can't a standard Pinch-to-Zoom just work when Zoom is turned on. Its system-wide pinch to zoom could over-ride an app specific support for this feature. Android does this much more fluently. No clunky gestures.”

Christopher Gautam Hota wrote: “Hotkey to hold in the Command (meta-)key and two-finger-scroll in and out is intuitive, unobtrusive, “Just Works,” and is awesome.”

mr grieves wrote: “Dark mode is fantastic. But there aren't enough options to make things bigger. On Windows I can increase the overall size of content to a very fine-grained level, or I can change to a multitude of resolutions. On the Mac I have a very small number of options. On iOS, the text size option doesn't seem to affect any apps, whereas on Android it has a very noticeable effect. On Mac the magnifier works well. The mouse pointer size slider was one of the things that first grabbed my attention. Smart Invert on the iPhone works reasonably well. I don't think this exists on the Mac though for some reason.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I have very low vision and use the low vision features on iOS sparingly. On my iPhone 14 pro, I've had a bit of trouble getting the contrast features to work reliably on all screens. Otherwise, the features are good.”

Accesstechinstructor wrote: “Vision loss is such a spectrum, there should be more available options that should be added to devices. For example choosing the size of font, colors, background brightness, etc.”

Section 3b: Low Vision User Experience

• iOS: 3.7 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• iPadOS: 3.4 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• macOS: 3.4 (Most frequent rating: 4)
• watchOS: 3.0 (Most frequent rating: 3)
• tvOS: 3.0 (Most frequent rating: 3)

Selected Comments on Low Vision User Experience

Jamie Olson wrote: “Safari on macOS does not mirror phone iOS. Smart Invert is much more consistent and functional on the phone. Color contrast issues are a big problem when rendering text.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I'd love to see the Zoom in and out gestures for iOS and iPadOS be simplified, and when Zoom is enabled, just let people use a common pinch-to-zoom gesture rather than the clunky double tap and hold with 3 fingers gesture used now. People have a hard time learning this gesture.”

Fish wrote: “The recent bug with the magnifier which has meant that you cannot set a default zoom level and have to swipe up all the time from zero is very frustrating hence the low score.”

Section 4: Other Ratings and Comments

Rating of the New Accessibility Features Introduced by Apple in 2022 for Visually Impaired Users, in Terms of Their Effectiveness and Usefulness in Enhancing the Experience With Apple Software

• Rating: 3.5 (Most frequent rating: 3)

Selected Comments on the New Vision Accessibility Features

Devin Prater wrote: “I love that they added Eloquence to iOS and macOS, and are allowing more voices to be added to the App Store. I hope Apple continue to improve on this, and that they add user-created dictionaries for Eloquence.”

Paul Martz wrote: “New language support aside, we don't really need new voices so much as bugs fixed in existing voices. Sadly, the changes made it harder for me to understand existing voices, an issue I still struggle with months after the change. Regarding the text proofreading tools for Mac, they were so badly broken on introduction that I've never bothered trying them a second time. Even if they worked as advertised, the interface is so clumsy it would still drive me away.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “None of the new VoiceOver features are useful to me. First of all, let’s talk about new voices. VoiceOver has added several Simplified Chinese voices, but the voice quality of these voices is not high. In addition, the Chinese voice engine has introduced many bugs in iOS 16, so this function will not be used in fact. Second, Door Detection sounds great, but it is also very unreliable in actual use. For example, when VoiceOver detects the same door, it will say that it has detected one door in the last second, and it will say that it has detected two doors in the next second. As for the detection of the door handle, it is even worse. It is said to be a knob for a while, and it is said to be a long handle for a while, which sounds very confusing.”

Jenna Pepper wrote: “Door Detection, in particular is shockingly functional. I say that as a compliment because you simply do not expect computer vision to be that good on anything. It's a very handy feature that I hope will be integrated into a hands-free device in the future. Finding doors and people independently is a game changer.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Eloquence still has many shortcomings and audio quality issues. Moreover, AI-powered Siri voices can't be used with VoiceOver despite their offline debut.”

Debbie Gillespie wrote: “iOS 16 has not been the smoothest update experience for me as compared to previous software updates. The new voices do not always pronounce text well, and it is necessary to change the VoiceOver language periodically then return it to my original option to get things working well again. Having said this, the feature set is very rich.”

Christopher Gautam Hota wrote: “Captioning FaceTime for my morning Bible study is a good idea, and mostly works. However, the captioning isn’t bettering itself, and while it works in a pinch, the accuracy is only around 50%.”

mr grieves wrote: “I use the new voices, although they aren't as good as the latest voices coming from Microsoft, they are still an improvement. Being able to hear indentation on the Mac is vital for coding. It works OK but isn't configurable by activities and is very very slow. I honestly would prefer not to have new features and just have bugs removed.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I love the Door Detection feature as I can use this to find my way around a strip mall in my city. I like how it, people detection and OCR all work together.”

Scott Davert wrote: “Very very happy to see Eloquence come to iOS! As a hearing impaired person who can only seem to understand this TTS at a faster speed, it has lead to me becoming a much more productive user.”

Henrik wrote: “I have started using Eloquence as my main speech synthesizer on iOS. It seems even more responsive than the voices we had available previously, so this is a very welcome improvement. On the other hand, Eloquence is a quite powerful speech synthesizer with a lot more customisable features than iOS, macOS, and iPadOS gives the user the options to change, so it would be a very welcome change to see more of that. Also, there was a higher quality version of Eloquence made originally for Symbian phones, and this version came along when Eloquence was ported to Android. It would be very nice to see this version be made available on Apple products as well. I would switch to it in a heartbeat if it was made available. Earlier, before iOS 16 was released, people made the comment that Eloquence sounded muddy. I think making the higher quality version as an option could solve this problem, and potentially make more people start using the synthesizer.”

Rating of Apple's Performance in 2022 in Addressing VoiceOver, Braille, and Low Vision-Related Bugs

• Rating: 2.8 (Most frequent rating: 3)

Selected Comments on Apple's Performance in 2022 in Addressing VoiceOver, Braille, and Low Vision-Related Bugs

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I've contacted Apple accessibility multiple times on a range of issues and I can't think of one that has ben improved or fixed. They are very nice, don't get me wrong, but they seem rather ineffective, at least with the bugs I report. Would prefer rude and productive.”

Jenna Pepper wrote: “I became so frustrated with macOS bugs that I sent an email to Tim Cook's office. I was told by the accessibility team that macOS 13 would have many bug fixes. After upgrading my music production machine to 13.1, I have yet to encounter any of these bug fixes. I have yet to see bugs like iOS Bluetooth audio routing be fixed. I am seeing users complain about poor performance on iOS 16. I am seeing more Braille bugs pop up in iOS. Safari is not responding. System dialogue. Authentication is not responding.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Even when I've sent in screen recordings of my issues, nothing gets resolved. I was trying to get Clips and iMovie to become fully accessible, now, I don't try anymore.”

Haroon Probst wrote: “I have submitted mini bug reports to both Apple Accessibility and Apple feedback support. I have never received as much of it as a response to my extremely detailed report.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Pretty good - I feel like they have fixed a number of bugs and are still engaged and receptive to feedback. I always get a prompt and detailed followup from their accessibility desk.”

Lukas wrote: “Some issues have still been present since like iOS 5, e.g. using the back button somewhere on a screen deep within settings, only for the focus to land on some entirely random unpredictable element on the previous screen. Scrolling long lists is almost useless in many apps because after scrolling and then touching, the focus jumps either to the very top or to the very bottom of the screen. The table index when displaying contacts is a prominent example of this, and so on.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Unfortunately, whilst most bugs are not critical, they do tend to force users to have to think, ok, a new update is out, shall I update which fixes bug X, or should I wait because right now there will be bug Y in the new update. Users shouldn't have to think which features they can live with being bugged and which they cannot, — at the least, new updates should fix longstanding bugs and minor bugs from previous release, otherwise they will keep piling up.”

Lee wrote: “Far to often you bang you're head against a wall of silence or stock email replies and nothing changes.”

Paul Martz wrote: “Apple seems to be completely ignoring accessibility bugs in macOS Safari. Worse, new bugs seem to appear with each new Safari release. It is quickly becoming an unusable web browser. Apple, fix Mac Safari now!”

sockhopsinger wrote: “I remain convinced that not only for VoiceOver, but all features, Apple is working under the model that quantity over quality is the way to proceed. Holding to preset release dates is an idiotic model to follow rather than waiting to solve as many bugs as crop up and have a better overall user experience. Again, this applies to all aspects of Apple, but obviously I do put most of the focus on accessibility, and VoiceOver in particular.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “The release of iOS 16 originally had enough bugs that I was forced to wipe my phone. I lost all my customizations and am still recovering. The updates following the initial release did fix the problems but they came to late to save my old configuration. I understand that testing doesn't always uncover everything but the initial failures were far beyond the previous experiences. Some bugs like the loud speech with bluetooth have been around since at least iOS 12 and somehow never gets fixed.”

PinkCupcake5 wrote: “I love that I don't have to worry about something not being accessible with Apple updates. Yes, there are bugs, but that is the case for sighted users as well.”

viphoana wrote: “There are ongoing focus issues some new some outstanding. Braille bugs have been introduced with iOS 16. Apple seems to be trying to work on them, but the progress is slow in my opinion. I still cannot use my current Braille display consistently as well as I used to in iOS 15.”

Jimmy wrote: “Many serious bugs (including sticky caps-lock keys at secure text fields, especially VO modifier key set to only use caps-lock and not control+option keys, inability to reach extra menu for wifi connection in pre-boot environments such as Recovery, and VO crash in authentication log-on screen especially when File Vault is on...) have been persisted through and through for many update versions.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I feel like the user experience has been getting worse over the past few years for iOS. It's a good thing I've had an iPhone for over 10 years, because I know how to work around things. But there are still so many major bugs (especially focus issues) that make tasks very slow, and sometimes impossible. These bugs are significant, and they have been around for a while with little to no improvement. There are some things that have been fixed, but not nearly enough.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I love VoiceOver and its utility in my daily life. However, I do spend more time than I would prefer trying to find work-arounds when things temporarily break. Apple does do a really good job of getting to most bugs that impact me, but it does not feel as though it deserves a stellar rating. It's fine, and usually good, but I tend to always find myself aware that things could have changed between updates. So far, in the last year, there were no critical bugs that impacted me, or forced me to wait on an update, which is good. Still, bugs like the one that goofed up reading email quick peeks, that were not even peeks from the current message, was a pain. And yet, Apple did get to it pretty quick.”

Selected Suggestions for Improving Apple's Vision Accessibility Features and the User Experience, and How Apple Could Better Serve the Needs of Their Visually Impaired Customers

An anonymous commenter wrote: “As Apple knows, you get what you pay for. Other companies have taken this concept and started applying it to those who are accessibility consultants. In some cases, competing companies are not only offering devices to do the testing on, but also compensating testers for their time. Some contracts are 4 and 5 figures large for less than 40 hours of work. Apple may lose some of its best testers, and best advice, to competition. Apple may want to consider this instead of depending on volunteers.“

Chris wrote: “The best thing Apple could do is relax their secrecy stance enough to allow them to directly engage with the users they serve. We should be able to have open communication with the people working on accessibility features and know our feedback is being taken seriously.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Incentivize developers who make their apps VoiceOver accessible and integrate accessibility features. Incentives could be a higher developer revenue, more prominent placement in the App Store, creation of a fund to hire devs to assist in fixing VoiceOver bugs for smaller development teams or solo developers.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Really focus on ensuring existing features work with no bugs, or as close to it as possible before adding in new things. Also, no Apple apps or the system UI should, in this day and age of accessibility awareness, have unlabelled buttons or other elements.”

Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 wrote: “Put more resources/training into working with Braille displays and Apple products for the Accessibility Support, open up the TTS landscape to even more developers, like creating an API or implementing new voices the same way they did with Eloquence, devote more resources and priority to finding and fixing Braille related bugs in Apple software, particularly iOS and iPadOS, supporting UEB math standard. I think it would be nice if they put in some basic accessibility requirements for developers. I get every thing can't be made accessible. But, at least put some basic requirements in. Plus, maybe put something in there like on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, on accessibility of apps. Make it easier for people like me especially people who have to pay for apps and or subscriptions to know if it's accessible or not before we shell out money we can't get back.”

Paul Martz wrote: “One can't help but get the impression that Apple is happy to sacrifice existing functionality, features, and user experience at the altar of marketing's latest ill-conceived musings. Apple is really good at innovating new products, but they are really bad at maintaining existing products. Personally, I think it's a lack of rigorous software engineering standards, but I can only speculate about what is broken within the walls of Apple's temple.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I'd like to see better transparency around how feedback from the public beta program is handled. I haven't heard anything back from Apple about any reports that I have filed.”

mr grieves wrote: “As mentioned before, stop adding new features and concentrate on fixing bugs. The Mac needs an awful lot of work in particular. It's great to have an accessibility email address and to get replies. But submitting diagnostic logs is far more difficult than it should be. Some way to do it directly from the Activity Monitor would be good. If a bug gets "passed to the technical team" then I never hear from it again. Being able to follow its progress (e.g. a support ticket I could look at) would be helpful. At the moment I spend a lot of time reporting bugs and they never get fixed.”

Scott Davert wrote: “Bring on an internal tester for Braille who doesn't rely on speech. Braille users are a small minority, but I would hope that they could be given some sort of priority due to the fact that an iOS device with a Braille display, or an Apple Watch with a Braille display, can serve as a lifeline for many individuals who are DeafBlind. It's a huge selling point for sure, but it also comes with responsibility. Another possibility would be to offer a better way for users to revert back to their previously installed version of the operating system. This would allow a user who discovers an accessibility or other issue with the operating system that has come up in the most recent update to be addressed wit little disruption in their lifeline.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “I have a pet peeve that has affected my constant use of the iPhone with a physical keyboard for years. I used to love all the keystrokes that worked across apps when editing text. I write a lot and I really enjoyed the published keystrokes that allowed for easy movement up and down a document, by line, by paragraph and that feature started to suffer around iOS 9. I find the iPhone to be such a powerful computer, but I would love attention paid to the keyboard experience again. (I gave up writing about these bugs years ago.)”

Accesstechinstructor wrote: “That all issues and bugs that the community brings are addressed in a timely manner with visible step by step measures. That blind and visually impaired individuals are hired and paid to test and fix issues with Apple devices instead of sighted and normally vision persons being used to address the issues. That the disability community be made a priority again.”

Tyler wrote: “I think if Apple Accessibility representatives posted to the AppleVis forum or a similar user group to announce new accessibility features, enhancements, and fixes in new versions of its operating systems and first-party apps, it could give users an increased sense of confidence in directly reporting bugs and an enhanced perception that they're being heard. When Apple announces, for example, new accessibility features annually on Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), such announcements, while instrumental in promoting awareness of digital accessibility to the general public, are highly scripted events that do not subject the company to real, nuanced praise and criticism from users who rely on such features but whose experiences are often overlooked in the grand scheme of product development, marketing, and refinement. In addition, I feel that if Apple Accessibility was more communicative with users through user groups like AppleVis, it might be easier for them to gauge which, of a long list of issues and complaints, are most pressing, and prioritize such issues accordingly.”

Selected Additional Comments About Experience as a Visually Impaired User of Apple Products

Jenna Pepper wrote: “I am just as happy as I am frustrated. On one hand, these products help me do and create like I have not been able to in the past. On the other, they are an endless source of grief and frustration as I try to navigate a landscape of software which was promised to be accessible.”

Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 wrote: “I'm lucky and blessed to have the access that I do. I never thought I'd be able to use a touchscreen! But, I've used iOS since 2016, and, love it!”

Paul Martz wrote: “When helping a blind person, the cardinal rule is to leave things where you found them. Don't rearrange the furniture. Apple provides products that are more accessible than anything else on the market. But they break this cardinal rule with each new software update.”

mr grieves wrote: “One of the most frustrating things about using a screen reader is feeling ignored and unwanted by companies. Apple is better than most at making it easy to contact Apple and be heard, and I also have more optimism when a new product comes out that I will be able to use it. But Apple as a whole are very secretive and don't communicate very well with the public. So I have absolutely no idea if they realise quite how bad VoiceOver on the Mac has become and whether they have any intention to do anything about it. This stops me spending 2k-3k on a new Mac because I don't have the confidence in the product.”

Fish wrote: “The iPhone with VoiceOver and Siri in my opinion was the biggest change for the blind and visually impaired since the development of Braille. I commend Apple for this and for continuing to work on improving their products. Whilst there will always be things which can be improved. They have come a long way, continue to invest for diversity to make the world a more inclusive place for all so let's celebrate that. Thank you for bringing us closer to the world enjoyed by our sited friends with the same piece of equipment that everyone else uses.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “Apple still stands out for me amongst mainstream companies for having a real and genuine commitment to accessibility, and long may this continue. That said, when new features, such as Lock Screen widgets last year, arrive unpolished for VoiceOver users, it really concerns me, so I hope Apple's commitment is not waining.”

Arya wrote: “I switched to Apple from Android because I felt Apple devices would help me in living an independent life, as they have always taken accessibility very seriously. My personal feeling is that Apple is losing ground as a leader in accessibility, as not many innovations are taking place with respect to VoiceOver users.”

Adam Samec wrote: “Regarding iOS, I would welcome if Apple focused more on preventing and solving the serious bugs. I also think there is still a room for employing OCR more extensively across the system. It would be nice to have a feature to OCR literally any visual element on the screen to get the text contained within. What I miss a lot as well is the Siri support for the Czech language, and I am sure other countries are waiting for Siri local support as well.”

“With regards to Macs with M1 or M2 chips, my hope was that I would be able to enjoy iOS apps on my Mac computer, since the iOS apps are quite often more simple and more accessible, like the Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or lire RSS reader. But this has not yet been the case, so I would greatly welcome if more effort was put into making the iOS apps more portable to macOS, and if macOS could better simulate the behavior and specifics of the iOS system.”

An anonymous commenter wrote: “My bottom line is simple: I absolutely appreciate how accessible the iPhone is in my daily life. I am thrilled that VoiceOver gets a lot of attention. Could it be more seamless? Of course. Could bugs be fixed before operating system updates? I wish they could. Still, I love my iPhone and the accessibility that it does provide.”

Notes

To determine the ratings on this report card and gather comments, we conducted a survey between February 20, 2023 and February 26, 2023, which was open to all registered members of the AppleVis community.

Participants were asked to consider the following before submitting ratings and comments:

1. When submitting ratings and comments, please only provide responses for questions where you have personal experience with the accessibility feature and platform in question. For example, if you exclusively use VoiceOver on an iPhone but do not use any of the low vision accessibility features on Apple's platforms, we ask that you please only submit answers for the questions relating to VoiceOver and the platforms that you use. This will help ensure that the survey results accurately reflect the views and lived experiences of real end users.
2. The 1-5 rating scale we're using is a typical model where 5 is the best score. So, if you give a rating of 5, it means you're highly satisfied with the aspect being rated, while a rating of 1 means you're highly dissatisfied.
3. In this survey and our report card, "vision accessibility features" refers to the available functionalities and capabilities of the software, while "user experience" refers to your overall user satisfaction with and ease-of-use of the software.
4. In one question, we ask about the new accessibility features introduced in 2022. To help you answer this question, we recommend taking a look at the preview of these features.
5. Before submitting the survey, please take a moment to carefully review your ratings and comments to ensure that they are a fair and accurate representation of your experience and opinions. By providing thoughtful and well-considered feedback, you can help ensure that the survey results are meaningful and constructive.
6. By completing this survey, you grant AppleVis permission to feature any of your comments in its Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card. You can opt to be attributed by your AppleVis account display name or quoted anonymously."

To ensure ethical treatment and respect for participant comments, we have refrained from making any grammatical changes to the quotes included in this report card. This way, we aim to present the authentic voices of members of our community as they share their genuine opinions and experiences.

We would like to give credit to JASON SNELL for inspiring the creation of our report card through his outstanding work on the Six Colors' annual Apple report card.