Seeking advice on how to help someone with diabetic neuropathy navigate their iOS device

Without asking for too much personably identifiable information, I do have some questtions for you.
1. Is your student visually impaired at all? I only ask because I do not believe you mentioned that, and we have all kinds of visitors here.
2. Is your student elderly, middle aged, or younger? Not asking for exact age, just an idea of where they are at in their life.
3. How long has she been dealing with diabetic neuropathy,?
4. If you answered yes to the first question, how long has she been visually impaired?

Thanks in advance. 🙂

Is this her first smart phone? Also, does she have any other type of Assistive Technology such as a Smart TV, a tablet, an Alexa device, etc?

If this is her first piece of AT, you are likely going to have an uphill battle. I do not say this to be cruel, just giving you the facts.

Here is my advice for you and for her. Sit with her if need be, and listen to as many YouTube videos as you can on VoiceOver tutorials. Start with the basics and once she has gotten a handle on that, elevate to some of the more advanced gestures and such.

There are also a few options under the Settings > Accessibility page that may help her with Touch.

Next, you can adjust the time it takes between taps, before a double-tap is registered, this setting is at the bottom of the Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver screen. This way she can take a bit of time getting used to the tap and swipe gestures.

Finally, Siri is your bestest friend. While not perfect, she can do a lot with the builtin voice assistant. A, lot!

I hope that is somewhat helpful for you. 😎

there's also the hable; https://www.iamhable.com/

You do have to by it and can't just try it so I'd use this as a last resort.

If she knows how to use a computer she could make an account here and we could help her.

It's meant to be getting a huge much needed overhall this year, for now you can make calls and send messages, check the weather, and without voiceover that's about it, oh, you can set alarms too.

You can set up calinder appointments and search the web, kind of, but you need to use voiceover to view them.

You can also ask Siri:
- What's my battery at? (for battery status)
- What time is it?
- What is the date?
- Any events today/this week/this month? (for calendar appointments)
- Latest sport scores for (insert team here).
- Call (insert person here).
- Text (insert person or people here).
- Facetime audio or facetime video (person or people here).
- Play (book title) on Kindle/Audible.

And heaps more.

It has its shortcomings, but it is not without its usefulness. 😀

Edit: Edited because the preview button hates me. 😣

Loc or location dots are very small, like a standard sized braille bump. Excellent for compact items like folding/rolling keyboards, and other collapsable electronics.

I just used a standard keyboard that I found on amazon.

I have been exploring options for similar problems recently. I think a bluetooth keyboard is a good idea, but she might need to test some in order to figure out what might work for her. She might need nice clicky keys. I don't have any up-to-date suggestions about keyboards. Mine is old.

She might also try Voice Control. The default commands for VoiceOver and Voice Control are impossibly long and difficult, but I have made custom voice commands to make it easier. Let me know if you want that custom commands file. Also if you want more info on it. Voice Control worked fine with my iPhone 13, but was too sluggish to make me happy on an iPad with only an a12 instead of an a15 processor.

Disclaimer: I do not have neuropathy or finger dexterity problems, but I am totally blind. I just explore options because I volunteer with a group helping certain blind people with technology. I never suggest things I haven't pretty thoroughly tested myself. In fact I think I need to write a message to Apple Accessibility to suggest a very necessary command they have left out of Voice Control for VoiceOver users. That is "Move to Item at Center" which can have a keyboard shortcut assigned to it, but not a Voice Command.

Also, remember that gestures can be customized. If she can not perform some gestures it will make using the device less efficient, but there is a good chance she can do enough to be worth using it if certain gestures are reassigned.

Another idea I had that may or may not work at all is to have her practice preforming the gestures against your hand if you are trainer her in-person. You could possibly give feedback on wether the pressure and number of fingers seems right. I don't know if she could then tell the difference between correct pressure and gestures and movements that aren't likely to work.