How emergency alerts will affect VoiceOver users in Canada?

By Fatima.Hamoud10, 6 April, 2018

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Hello,
One day I got a message from my carrier saying that starting April 6 2018 the government of Canada will launch the emergency alert system for all iPhones. Does anyone know how this will affect VoiceOver users? For example, if I got an emergency alert on my iPhone, how would I be able to hear what VoiceOver is saying? I know that the volume of the emergency alarm is louder than the VoiceOver volume.

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By Kelly Sapergia on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 02:58

I never got an alert like the one you described from my provider, but I've been using an app for my province's emergency alert system. It's not bad with VoiceOver, but there's also a new (I believe) Canada-wide app called Alertable.
I've been using it for a couple weeks or so, and it's very accessible. The interface is clean, and it seems to me that the notifications give some more information compared to the provincial app's.
As well, I don't know if the provincial alert app has this feature, but Alertable can, if you set it up, bypass your device's Do Not Disturb feature in the event there's a critical alert.

By Rocker on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 02:58

Greetings, as Kelly says the new app called Alertable will send you a notification if there is an emergency and/or a weather event in your area! The carrier driven alert that you are talking about is somewhat different! For one, it only works through LTE; that means the carrier. you will not get it on Wi-Fi alone! In addition, it’s not just for iPhones. In fact, not all phones will be supported for the April launch. it’s up to each carrier to implement service for all LTE customers example, I am with freedom mobile, And when I click the link within the text message that we received I learned that the iPhone is not yet supported! I do not know how an alert will present on our phones and I suggest you contact your carrier to find out if your iPhone is supported and how the system willwork for you: HGH cheers… Rocker

By Justin on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 02:58

Hi,
Here in the US, we've had these emergency alerts for years. It's kind of funny, every time they go off on the iPhone, they always scare me! anyway, back to the original piece. If you get an alert that was issued by your carrier/amber alerts, or whatever, you can reread the text with VO. It won't disapear, or you can reread it in your notifications.

By cool cat on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 02:58

Replying to #1, thanks for the app mention. I said yes/on to the weather advisories. Hopefully they are not too annoying , lol. IF so, it's being switched to off.

By Fatima.Hamoud10 on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 02:58

In reply to by Justin

When you got these alerts on your iPhone, how did you balance the volume between VoiceOver and the alarm sound? I want to be able to hear VoiceOver read the text as well as the alarm itself.

By Justin on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 02:58

Hi,
I think I went into settings>sounds and turned the sound volume down to something like 25% or so. Then the volume of the sounds was lower, but I could still hear VO speaking. If you do this, all sounds (ringers, notifications, etc) will be lower and possibly hard to hear.
HTH, I haven't done it for quite some time as we rarely get these alerts in my location.

By Jimmy V on Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 02:58

I usually wwait for the alarm sound to stop, than reread the text with voice over. Easiest way i've found to do it. I'm in the US