Apple Releases iOS 9.0.1 with Bug Fixes

I don't see what is fixed in accessibility

If you would take the extra time to re-read the post, it states there will probably not be accessibility fixes in this mini update.

Ok, found in iOS 9.0 with others, that when typing in any text field, and finding a word was inserted either by typing on the touch screen, or with dictation, incorrectly, when navigating back to the word, deleting it, VoiceOver would not announce as you were deleting character by character as it had in iOS 8.4.1 and earlier editions.

Subsequently, when wanting to type in manually the new corrected word, it would not announce the letters being typed. What would be announced is when you were touching the letters to identify the correct letter to type. This is while using standard typing on iOS.

This issue I am happy to report has been fixed in iOS 9.0.1. This is also on an iPhone 6+.

Additionally, in iOS 8.4.1, when turning off Badges in the Mail app under Settings\Notifications, you would not hear how many emails you have or whether they are unread or not.

In iOS 8.4.1 and earlier versions of the OS, when turning off the Badges icon, you would prevent from hearing the number of unread emails if you so desired.

When upgrading to iOS 9.0, the Mail app displayed the following information when navigating over the App icon on the screen, (Mail "No unread messages")

I began troubleshooting this by turning on the Badge icons for the different Mail accounts I have, and verified that the problem still existed and it did.

I then turned the Badge icons off and the problem yet still exists, and this was in iOS 9.0.

After upgrading to iOS 9.0.1 the issue still exists and has been registered and logged with the Apple Accessibility team.

I hope this information was helpful.

There is still a bug with audio destination in the latest 9.0.1 update. Steps to reproduce...
1. With a Bluetooth device connected, find the option for audio destination in the rotor. At this point, VoiceOver should be speaking and you should be able to hear it coming from the Bluetooth speaker or headphones.

2. Swipe down on the touchscreen once, and VoiceOver will now be speaking through the phone. VoiceOver will say, default audio route. However when this happens, you will now find that there is no way to swipe down once again and return VoiceOver to the Bluetooth speaker you have connected. The only fix for this that I've found is to disconnect the Bluetooth device. Also, if you have VoiceOver going through a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, and you toggle VoiceOver off and back on, VoiceOver will speak through the phone, instead of going back to the Bluetooth speaker as expected. I'll write to apple accessibility on this one. It's not a show stopper by any means but it's a bit of an annoyance.

I haven't used Bluetooth with the audio destination feature yet. If you swipe down as you described, does the other audio keep playing through your Bluetooth device or does it also start coming out your phone?

I just did a bit of an experiment, and I figured out that I was able to get VoiceOver to go through the phone, and then back to the Bluetooth speaker once more, but it's not consistant. Most times you can get VoiceOver to go through the phone while music is playing, but if you want VoiceOver to go back through the speaker again, you have to disconnect the Bluetooth speaker and reconnect it again.

Hope they are still planning to do major fix to deal with the bugs. I had not heard so many issues in iOS 9 compare with previous.

If others are still experiencing the situation where Bluetooth keyboards will not allow you to type in edit fields at all, with Voiceover running, please report this to accessibility@apple.com

Trust me, this is much, much more stable than the first public release of iOS 8 last year. It's a thousand times more stable. What we're experiencing here are bugs that are a bit annoying, but certainly not show stoppers.

Toonhead makes some excellent points. No showstoppers, but, for me, Its really nice to have the choice this year as I'm not planning to upgrade my phone. However, it continues to be unfortunate that accessibility, using VO specifically, simply isn't an equivalent experience from the get go and it is not apple's priority to make it so, as ios7, 8 and now 9 have now demonstrated. Of course these problems will be solved in due course, but as with last year, I'm expecting a considerable wait for VO users to get some love.

Don't be so negative. What does the fact that the Voice-Over issues will be fixed tell you? It tells me that they do care. If they didn't, Voice-Over would not even exist. And quit always blaming Apple. They can only do so much at once. If you want to improve things, become a programmer if you're not one, go to work for Apple, and give us a bug free, totally accessible phone right from the first upgrade. My tag line applies.

If you think you're finished, you! really! are! finished!

Keep in mind that the fixes in this release had nothing to do with accessibility, so clearly, people outside the blindness circles were having some issues too. I promise you, it's not going to be an awful thing if you upgrade, because there are definitely workarounds for these small bugs. if there weren't, I would encourage people to stay where they are. I think the new features outway the bugs. It's a long long way from how things were in the first release of iOS 8 last year. It really is stable. There are just a few tiny bugs to contend with, and they aren't awful or anything.

To be honest, I don't think I'm being especially negative, just objectively stating the facts as they currently stand, not denying that ios9 is a significant improvement on last years early offerings and that is very welcome. It would be simply incorrect to equate the sited experience with ours however and that is the core of my argument. I'm basing my assumptions on the evidence Apple have previously provided and refusing to be an Apple apologist however much I may enjoy using their products. Not complaining, just outlining the reality. Your entitled to your perspective Charles naturally. Of course these are tiny issues, but professionally some of them will or could have a detrimental impact on my productivity therefore not upgrading is a sensible option, especially because the news app isn't currently available in the UK, and that may have pushed me over the edge.

Ah, but those are simply assumptions. Assuming gets you nowhere, good sir. But this thread isn't a drama circle, so I'll shut up now.

Fair comment Joseph. Certainly not a drama circle. I'm not overtly or covertly implying Apple don't care about accessibility, quite the contrary. But I believe, where appropriate, Its healthy to be critical, engaged and also remain objective in our analysis. I'm just not a technology fanboy, for any mainstream company, and Apple do a better job than most, so no apologies I'm afraid.

Charles,
IOS8 was released last September, it took until April until 8.3 and what I consider a solid release for VO users arrived. Fact. It is not either irrational or unreasonable to expect a similar time frame in this regard but It is much better now, so hopefully they will address the tiny things more quickly this time. However, considering the amount of products and software that they are now involved with, and the general software release cycle, it is simply not an outrageous conclusion to think that it may take an equivalent amount of time to produce a really solid version of ios9 for Voiceover. Quite a straightforward way of thinking about it honestly.

I'd like to give my opinion in regards to the argument about negativity towards Apple. The problem with expecting VO to be flawless is purely irrational because there just isn't the man power to dedicate to VO. When Apple releases a beta version of iOS 95% + of the testers are sighted and therefore there are not as many bugs being reported. This is why in the initial release there may be more bugs until the end-user reports them and they are fully aware of the issue.

I do agree with Darren12's statements here. The VoiceOver user's experience on initial public release day for iOS 7, 8 and now 9 has not been the equivalent of the sighted user's experiences on initial public release day. The lists of VoiceOver bugs on Applevis factually confirm that sentiment. I am not stating that we should expect the VO user's experience to be equivalent. I wish it were, but it is not a perfect world. But I am contending that in my mind the VO user and the sighted user had essentially equal initial release day experiences when iOS 3, 4, 5, and 6 were released. And that is not the case in 7, 8 or 9. Few could objectively argue against that. It did take until the spring for an iOS 8 release bug-free enough for my tastes was available. That of course is my opinion. But there are facts here that ought to be concerning VO users.

Without risking more drama here, good on your Charles and others.
This blind community can be way too negative and ungrateful.

IOS 9 is awful with voiceover.
- When dictating iPhone freezes all the time.
- When doing anything iPhone freezes.
- Suddenly voiceover stops working, so the iPhone has to be turned off and on again to get it back to work.
- Apps, Safari, anything takes for ever to open or load.

It is a pain because I can't do anything without my iPhone (homework, read the news, books, etc).

First off, @Daniela it must be very frustrating to have all these problems happen for you. It doesn't seem a typical experience, and certainly from my point of view IOS9 is great, but that makes it no less frustrating for you I can understand that. Which device are you using? Something may have gone wrong with the update, as happened to me a while back.

Now, folks, can I adopt a centre ground here, which I hope is more healthy? I'm not in favour of unquestionning deference to Apple and I'm not sure, therefore, how adjectives like grateful etc. help. Blind people are consumers, just like sighted people. Are sighted people grateful for features? I think to describe them as such would be a little odd. Generally, you're not grateful that your car has power steering. On the other hand, I'm not sure this stuff about Apple's not caring really achieves anything. I personally think Apple does care, and certainly a good deal more than most companies. I'm pleased about, rather than grateful for, that fact. There's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy criticism of IOS9 and the various bugs in it, but I must admit that as soon as I start reading things along the lines of how terrible the world is and how Apple are clearly not remotely interested in us, I do get rather bored.

Back to the topic, I haven't found anything of note that is different in this IOS update. I didn't expect anything, to be honest. It's only a minor update, after all. then again, I'm not nearly the power user that some of you chaps are.

Hi. To those folks having issues with the iPhone after installing iOS 9, or iOS 9.0.1. Please tell us the version of iPhone you're using? This will help to determine if there's a fix. Sometimes, going into the iPhone's settings, and turning some things on and off can make a world of difference. 2 settings that immediately come to mind are ones I've modified, and I find that it helps. Firstly, under general, go to accessibility, and make sure that reduce motion is set to on. Also, if you're using an iPhone 6,make sure that reachability is set to off. Next, go back to general, and make sure that background app refresh is set to off. This really helps with the battery. I don't know if this will help, but these are the settings I'm using and I'm not having any real issues.

Greetings everyone I found a bug I wonder if anyone else is having. When I go to flip pages with voiceover, the voiceover seems to stop but continues talking. it gets stuck whenever I move rapidly up then move left or right on my screen. also pressing the button to speak to siri results in siri at randomly not hearing but acting as though it did.

I just got the upgrade. I'm one of the people who have a horribly distorted Samantha enhanced voice, to the point that the default is much better. I had removed the enhanced voices entirely and set it to default, but as soon as I upgraded it had auto-set itself to enhanced again and that was my only choice on the roater. Had to go in and unselect enhanced and pick default again, even though it said it was selected and enhanced wasn't. It scared me for a minute, since it just looked like both voices sounded the same.Okay for now :)

I have had a chance now to try iOS 9 on a secondary device. I do like the variety of voices now available. I like the fact that, when using a foreign language voice, announcements about headings etc. are in the target language instead of the foreign voice speaking garbled English. It was a small thing, and something I never minded or deemed a bug, but it is a nice touch. I also find that Safari is taking ages to load, but when it does get up to speed I find the bug where Safari jumped all over the place while reading a Web page has been fixed. A say all on a lengthy article now seems to work well every time. The spotlight search is a nice touch too. All that said, the battery is dying faster than I've seen on any previous iOS. I will check my background settings etc. to make sure I find culprits if there are any. Honestly, even with the improvements I mentioned, I find 8.4.1 a far better and more stable experience and honestly would not recommend 9 to anyone at this time. I find the user experience too unpredictable and it is turtle slow on my iPad Mini. Even on the new generation iPod Touch, I find it a poorer overall experience than 8.4.1 on the same device. Just my two cents. Good and bad about it for sure, but ultimately I don't see it as being ready for prime time.