Accessing VoiceOver Independently on iPhone 5

By Misty Dawn, 24 November, 2012

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
I got an iPod 4G a while back and was pleased to discover (through various accessibility podcasts) that one could independently (without sighted assistance) access VoiceOver by tapping its HOME button thrice rapidly. However, when I tried doing the same thing on a demo version of the iPhone 5 in an AT&T store, it inverted the color on the screen rather than accessing VoiceOver. How does one independently access VoiceOver on the iPhone 5? I would really like to be able to set up my iPhone independently! (Aggravatingly, the AT&T store representative had no idea how to do this or if it was even possible! We blind folk are, once again, required to train folks who should know these kinds of things how to deal with us, e.g., talking voting machines,...but that's another topic entirely!)

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Comments

By AnonyMouse on Thursday, November 22, 2012 - 20:58

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team
Well, Misty. Let me see if my old mind can help you out. On any device with IOS 6.x. You should be able to access through the Settings -> General -> Accessibility. From here towards the bottom of that page should be the Triple Click Home section. Flick right of that. You should get a Triple Click Homebutton. Do a single finger double tap to enter to that page. Now you should get a variety of things you can turn on/off. In this case selected or not selected. Voice Over Invert Color Zoom Assisted Touch So depending what are turn on or selected are the options you get when you use the Triple Click Home. Here is what happens. If you just have one item turned on. You can use the Triple Click Home and it will perform in what you have selected. Now if you have multiple of those items selected. Then at this point when you Triple Click Home it will then prompt you the list of items you have turned on. It wants to know what mode do you want to use. So Say Voice Over and the Inverted Color is on. You will be prompt to use the Voice Over or the Inverted Color. In this case. You say it was Inverting the Color when you used the Triple Click Home. So apparently somebody had changed the default settings. That could have been me. I'm one of those jokers that love to visit the Apple Store and turn on the Voice Over and then turn on the curtain then leave. :P HTH
OK, so, you're saying that someone may have change the default setting from VoiceOver to Color Invert? So, then, you are implying that the default setting for all iPhone 5s is that Tripple Tap Home activates VoiceOver?

By Lisa on Thursday, November 22, 2012 - 20:58

Tripple click home, is by default, what you use to turn on voice-over for any new iphone 5. The demo phones don't often work with this, because people can change the settings. But all new phones will turn voice over on when you tap home three times.

By MarkSarch on Thursday, November 22, 2012 - 20:58

In reply to by Lisa

That's right Lisa The previous comment submited by lisa is the best answer for VoiceOver however I want to add few words at your comment: triple click home Turning ON VoiceOver making Triple click home by default on any ios device running iOS 5 or later, note this command works only for iOS devices bran new, it's mean turning for first time or after have reset complete. Making triple click home once after the device been turned on will not work You need follow the steps and need sidets assistance .*go to settings *general *accessibility *VoiceOver *hit on VoiceOver to get VoiceOver On. Once VoiceOver is running do the follow *on the left corner of the top look for back button and press double tap on it *on this windows Accessibility heading Go to the bottom and select triple click home and press double tap *look for VoiceOver and press double tap on it After done all the steps VoiceOver will turn On / Off by default making triple click home.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Thursday, November 22, 2012 - 20:58

In reply to by Lisa

Since IOS 6X, it seems like thevoiceover option in triple click home sometimes switches to something else. I could be wrong, but I feel like it could be a bug. I say the above because when I do a hard reset, I sometimes get a phone that doesn't automatically turn voiceover on when reseting. Triple clicking does nothing and I am left with either getting sighted assistance to turn voiceover on through settings or doing it through ITunes. When I do, the voiceover settings I configured seem to have been taken away and I have to set up talking speed, triple click home, say all features, etc.
Hello. No. They are not lying. At setup, the default action of the triple press of home is to toggle Voiceover on/off. But, if a person sets up their device without turning on Voiceover to do so, The default action performed by the triple press of home will not be Voiceover. I believe one is just presented with a list of accessibility options to enable. So, so long as you do a triple press of home when you are on the setup screen of your new device, Voiceover will be enabled and, Voiceover will be the default when triple press of home is used until someone goes into settings and changes it.