For those users who require more than one language on their iDevice, it is now possible to install more than one high quality speech synthesizer. To do this, go in to Settings\General\Accessibility\Speak Selection. Then, activate the Voices button, followed by the language you wish to add. Choose the dialect, if any are available, that you wish to download the higher quality synthesizer for. Finally, move to the right and double tap enhanced quality. After the files are downloaded to your device, you will have them available as options within the Languages and Dialects option in the VoiceOver settings. Be aware that each high quality voice will consume anywhere from 50 MB to 300 MB of space on your device. Phonetic feedback now gives the VoiceOver user the ability to have the letters only pronounced as their phonetic equivalent. E.G. A for alpha, B for bravo, etc.

 

Dismissing apps from the App Switcher becomes easier. Prior to iOS 7, one had to go in to the App Switcher and then double tap and hold on the apps they wish to dismiss, and then double tap again to close the desired app. now, when in the App Switcher, one can flick up and then begin double tapping the apps they wish to dismiss. This is very great news for braille users who could not previously dismiss apps without interacting with the touch screen. This was annoying when trying to use the phone when it was stored away in a pocket, for example. (More on braille changes later).

 

There is now also an option to make the VoiceOver cursor that is on the screen larger. This is the rectangular box which shows up around the item that VoiceOver focus is set to.

 

As noted before, there is a new control Center. This has a keyboard equivalent on braille displays. The command space with dots 2-5 will launch the Control Center from anywhere within iOS 7. This is actually faster than the touch screen where you have to tap the status bar before doing the 3 finger swipe up gesture. Another added keyboard command is to jump to the Notification Center. This can be achieved by pressing space with dots 4-6. Just like the Control Center, this command seems to work from anywhere. For those who were hoping for a double tap and hold equivalent keyboard command on braille displays, I’m sorry to have to report that I could not find one.

 

There is now an option called “automatic braille Translation”. When this is turned on, contracted braille input is translated as it was previously. When turned off, VoiceOver will only translate what you have typed after pressing the space bar, or backspace. I think the backspace auto translation could be a bug, but I’m not sure. I actually typed the word great, contracted as grt, but waited 2 minutes before entering the letter T, and it still translated my keyboard input properly after pressing the spacebar. One still has the option to auto translate just like before, or even to just have one thing auto translated. To auto translate, press space with dots 4 and 5. I’m not quite certain of any practical application for this particular keyboard shortcut, but maybe someone else will find a use for it.

 

There is also a new feature where equations are shown in Nemeth Code. While I suspect this may work with iBooks, I don’t have any books which have equations in them to try this feature out, so cannot review it. I’m sure someone in the coming days will do so though, if it has not been done already. There should be the option to always hide or show the Virtual Keyboard. However, this setting does not work as advertized. When in a note in the Notes app, I was unable to get the on screen keyboard to come up. Pressing space with dots 1-4-6 would not change this setting, it would only speak the status of the setting. Further, when in a text message window, the virtual keyboard would come up either way after entering a letter on a Bluetooth keyboard or braille display. This functionality is handy in particular for deaf-blind iDevice users who could open up a note in the Notes app and use the on screen keyboard once VoiceOver was set to touch typing to communicate with the hearing sighted population. Before, it was often necessary to press space with dots 1-4-6 to turn the Virtual Keyboard back on when attempting to use the iDevice for the above mentioned function. Now, it is just gone.

 

There are some bugs to be aware of as Braille users. One of them, and certainly the most significant, is that it is no longer possible to send a text message using a Braille display by choosing a contact in your contacts list. If one goes to compose, adds a contact from their address book, and attempts to flick right (space with dot 4), or left (space with dot 1), they will find that nothing will happen. In order to get VoiceOver to recognize that there are things underneath its cursor, it is necessary to hit the touch screen. There is, however, somewhat of a work around. After activating the compose button, in the “to” field, type the first few letters of the contact. Once this has been done, flick right twice (space with dot 4), and select the contact that way. This works fine.

 

Finally, the select all keyboard command (space with dots 2-3-5-6) no longer functions. It still works if you go in to the VoiceOver practice area, but will not work anywhere else. When in a text field, it simply inserts an A in to the document instead of performing its designed function.

 

Most of the information in this particular section of the article was garnered through talking with low vision users. As I have never had sight, it is impossible for me to evaluate this particular access method personally. I’d like to thank Amy Mason in particular for giving this a thorough look through and providing much of the following information pertaining to low vision.

 

One of the biggest new features in iOS 7 is of course the complete re-design of the platform from a visual perspective. Apple is using bright, almost pastel colors, very skinny fonts and translucency effects to refresh iOS from a visual perspective.  Unfortunately many of the design choices made by Apple are likely to make using iOS more difficult for low vision users.   

 

iOS 7 has many issues pertaining to contrast that cannot be consistently made up for by the new and existing visual enhancements. For example, the notification center, Siri, and Control panel pop-up over the home screen with a translucent (frosted glass) effect behind them. This will make everything on these screens much harder to see.   The new "improve contrast" feature flattens this translucency to a matte background, which is sometimes beneficial, such as in notification center and Siri where a user will see white text on a black background. This is generally helpful for many low vision users as it has very strong contrast. However, the control center becomes light gray. Some controls are black which has passable contrast, but selected controls are white which is rendered nearly invisible by being overlaid on the light gray background. Furthermore, the Invert Contrast option cannot be used to fix issues of contrast on the device.  Many apps, (notes, Music, the iTunes and App Store, Game Center, Passbook, Calendar and Reminders main screen) are rendered with black text on a white background. The weather app places small white text on top of weather related backgrounds which dynamically  change to show the type of weather being experienced in an area, and (as previously stated) Siri, Notifications, and Stocks are designed with white text on a black background.  This general inconsistency of the interface along with the control center's already terrible contrast, means that depending on which applications a low vision user wishes to use, invert colors will invariably help with some, make others far worse, and  will not improve a third class of applications no matter what state the invert colors setting is set to.  

 

Dynamic text size replaces the Large Text option under accessibility in iOS 6 (which in iOS 7 has been moved out of accessibility and under General in settings.  The purpose of both of these settings is to increase the size of dynamic text in iOS. (This behavior is similar to when a low vision user increases the size of text on a website.  If the site was designed to support it, the text will grow larger, but if it was not, the text size will not increase.)  For example, in the Email app and in the Notes app, text of the actual content of email messages and notes was increased, but the lists of messages and Notes, which are important if you plan to access any of them, were not affected. At this time, the number of apps supporting this functionality is low, so it will only be of use with a few apps. Furthermore, system messages and most other text onscreen is not affected.  Large Text is iOS 7 is almost exactly like dynamic text except that dynamic text actually will increase the text size more than Large Text will.   

 

The text in iOS 7, in general, consists of very thin fonts both within apps and the Home screen icons. This makes it very difficult to read, as even with the new font size set to 100%, letters are very narrow, and consist of very thin lines, which are harder to read.  The letters also appear to be somewhat cramped or run together despite an otherwise cleaner interface. Bold Text has been added to accessibility settings in an attempt to improve the new appearance of iOS 7 for low vision. While offering a bit in the way of making icons and system text stand out, this setting may not be enough for many low vision users. Turning this setting on will require you to restart your device.

 

Another new setting, which is designed to assist low vision users with regards to how some backgrounds and wall paper appear to “move”, is reduce motion. However, as a VoiceOver user, I have found that turning this setting on seems to speed up my iDevice slightly, possibly because the graphics processor is not working quite as hard.

 

Finally, there is a feature called on/off labels. When enabled, instead of icons appearing as different colors to determine whether they are on or off, this now has a numerical value. If an item has a 0 next to it, this means it is off, and a 1 would represent that the feature is on. I’m not quite sure what this feature was designed to do, possibly assist the color blind in determining whether an item is on or off.

 

The only new added functionality for those who are deaf or hard of hearing is support for subtitles and closed captioning. One assumes that this may mean that movies purchased in iTunes will soon support this functionality. Also, this may work with YouTube and Netflix, once these features are implemented in these video services.

 

One major change that could open up a new world for those with physical disabilities that prevent them from interacting with the touch screen or a keyboard is the added ability to control your iDevice with a switch. Once a switch is connected to another device, along with your iDevice, it can be configured to scan through menus a set number of times. One can also set the pauses between the movement of each item. iOS will also give auditory feedback and there are some minor visual enhancements possible related specifically to switch control. One can even connect multiple switches to accomplish a specific task or tasks if desired. As this is not my area of expertise, I cannot offer much more in the way of input on this section. I also do not have a switch to test this portion of iOS, so I hope there will be other reviews concerning this access method. It did, however, seem worthy of note.

 

There are many great enhancements to iOS 7 with respect to accessibility changes. Some of the ways in which things have been accomplished using iDevices have changed with this release. This is not only limited to accessibility itself, but also to the general lay-out of the OS. For example, you can now put multiple pages of apps in one folder, but can only fit 9 apps on each page. Also, from a visual standpoint, it would seem that the new operating system could be a significant challenge to those who need a high degree of consistent contrast. As such, I suggest that low vision users in particular take a look at the new oS at an Apple Store or other retailer selling iDevices to see if it will work for them. If you are a speech and/or Braille user, I would advise checking out the bug list on applevis.com to be certain you can handle the bugs before upgrading to the new iOS. iOS 7 is a free upgrade and is available for the iPhone 4 and newer, the iPad 2 and newer, as well as the iPod touch 5th generation. You can find a general list of new features at: http://www.apple.com/ios/whats-new and instructions on updating your iDevice can be found at: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414