A friend recently asked me how to enable Lock Rotation. This is something that should be easy to do, and if anyone knows an easy way, please tell me.
An AppleVis search for "enable lock rotation" turns up a few old discussions. One technique involves a 3-finger swipe right from the task switcher. This no longer works, but it's not clear whether that's by design or a bug.
According to Apple's documentation, you change Lock Rotation in the Control Center. But accessing Control Center has changed over time, varies by device, and varies according to whether you use VoiceOver or not.
In the spirit of making it easier to enable Lock Rotation, and also making it easier to open Control Center, I'll submit the following humble suggestions in the hopes that someone at Apple might consider implementing them.
- Add a Settings option for Lock Rotation. The fact that this option is only available through Control Center and not through Settings seems wrong. It's the only setting I'm aware of not controllable through Settings. It's an oddball.
- Make it possible to open Control Center using SIRI. Currently, it's hard for me to explain to someone how to open Control Center because I have to know what device they have and whether they're using VoiceOver. If this were possible with SIRI, we would have a one-size-fits-all solution.
- While we're changing SIRI, why not make it possible to modify the Lock Rotation option using SIRI? It would be so much easier if I could simply say 'enable lock rotation' or 'turn off lock rotation'.
And, of course, if I can find the website for submitting suggestions to Apple, I will copy this post there.
Comments
Submitting suggestions
You should submit this suggestion to Apple's accessibility team via email accessibility@apple.com
Alternatively, suggestions can be submitted through the Feedback Assistant. If you aren't running a beta Apple OS, you can accessed this by typing applefeedback:// in a browser address bar on Mac, iOS or iPad.
Submitted
Here's the URL for iPhone feedback:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone/
I submitted my suggestions there, along with a link to this article.
I did not email accessibility. The suggestions cited above would make it easier to access Lock Rotation for sighted as well as vision-impaired users. Even my sighted friends have commented that not being able to change Lock Rotation in settings seems wrong, and have commented on how frustrating it is to access Control center because the method varies by device and has changed over the years.
Uniform Voiceover Gesture for Accessing Control Center
As of now, touching the status bar and flicking up with three fingers thereafter bring up Control Center, regardless of the IOS device being used.
Opening Control center
According to this Apple Support article, the method varies depending on whether your iPhone is a 10 or later, or an SE, an 8 or earlier.
Also, the article fails to mention that the gestures varies slightly if you're using VoiceOver. You must first place your finger on the hotspot and wait for the audio feedback, then perform the swipe. This is a gesture that is challenging for many VoiceOver users to perform reliably. It has been discussed here before.
You can still use the old gestures.
If you listen to voiceover hints, you'll find that you can still use the old gesture for opening the control center on phones without a home button.