Google docs and IOS

I believe the Google Docs app is mostly accessible, although it's been some time since I've last used it.

HTH

In my experience, Google Docs is more accessible with the iOs app than with a computer. You should be able to perform most common word processing functions on the app.

I have the latest version of google docs on ios and i can't figure out how to get to the end of a document. I can page down until the end, but VO starts reading from the beginning.

Before adding to this thread I did a search for Google Docs on IOS. All the entries are so out of date on this topic.

I had always been told this was a good app for accessibility. All I know is whether editing a Word document in Docs on IOS, or editing a Google Doc, if
you delete content with the onscreen keyboard, or from a Bluetooth keyboard, it just says selected item. As you backspace or whatever it will not tell
you what you are deleting, making this nearly impossible to edit with.
This was my primary editor for Word documents because it seemed to work better than Microsoft Word with a Bluetooth keyboard, until last year when this
mysteriously stopped working. I verified the issue with other friends using the same technique. I hope someone will tell me I am wrong.

I did the responsible thing and called Google support through the Be My Eyes app to report this bug. The agent reproduced the problem and escalated the
issue. I checked a few months later, no ETA for resolution.

If this is unusable, I believe this information needs to be a blog post, or given some higher visibility than being buried in a 4 year old forum topic.

Google's documentation for iOS with BoiceOver:
https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6282736?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS

To quickly move to the beginning or end of a document, use VO+Space. VoiceOver will respond with "insertion point at start" or "insertion point at end".

Google Docs makes it pretty cumbersome to delete a character at a time. If you turn on quick nav and rotor to select, then up arrow to select characters, you can hear each character as you select it. Then hit backspace to delete the selection. While this works, it's tedious. Furthermore, spaces and punctuation aren't announced. This makes it impractical for professional editing, in my opinion.

I do a lot of document reviewing in which I need to add comments. As with practically any word processor that supports a comment feature, there is no obvious way to jump focus between comment text and anchor text. For example, Google Docs has a nice comment pane, allowing me to move through each comment, but, with focus on a comment, there's no way to close the pane and leave focus on the anchor text. There's also no way to sort the comments, and they seem to be listed most recent first.

Starting a new Google Doc from scratch, I was unable to find a way to add a first-line hanging indent, which seems like a pretty serious feature omission.

It appears I'll be able to do some basic work with Google Docs on iOS, but it's no where near as useable and feature-rich as the Mac OS desktop / Safari browser experience.

I use Google docs on iOS with speech output almost every day, especially for initial edits.

I'll sometimes use the rotor to navigate by lines on my keyboard. Otherwise I just use text editing commands–e.g., option + up-down arrows to move by paragraph, option+ left-right arrows to move by word, function + VO + command to move by sentence, etc. I find it a lot faster to select by word and then use the indicated google docs shortcut keys to insert comments, suggested edits, hyperlinks, etc. Good luck!

Is there a way to jump to the bottom of a document in a Google doc without a bluetooth keyboard, scroll back a few pages, and have VO read from the cursor position? I've never gotten this to work.

I'll prefix this answer by saying I'm on an old iPad 4 - yes, a 10-year-old iPad - and it is running iOS 10. The Google Docs app hasn't been updated in years. So even though this works for me, your mileage may vary.

I double tap until I hear VoiceOver say "Insertion point at end". Then I 3-finger scroll back a few screens. I drag around the screen with one finger until I find a line to start reading at. Then I double-tap to put the insertion point there. Finally, 2-finger swipe down. VoiceOver reads from that insertion point to the end of the document.

It would be truly sad if the only solution for basic functionality like this is to keep a 10-year-old iOS device around.

If I really had to, I would double tap to go to beginning or end of document and use the rotor settings to navigate by line or paragraph. I've never tried swiping with three fingers to move by page, but I don't see why this wouldn't work.

If you mainly need to read (and not do too many edits) the reading experience opening a google doc in drive is much easier to deal with.

I found a way to jump from a comment into the document anchor text. Again, I'm using an old version: 1.2019.12202 so I don't know if this is useful.

With edit mode off, find the Comments button and open it. Find the comment of interest. Select it. You'll hear VoiceOver read the anchor text followed by the word "selected". Excellent. Close the comments panel with the escape key (I imagine 2-finger scrub will work).

Now, here's the important part: Go to the Edit button at the bottom of the app. I think it's the last button on the screen. Select it. This puts you in edit mode, and the anchor text is selected, so if you use the arrow keys, your focus is right where you want it.

My problem was that I wasn't using the edit button. I was just double-tapping the edit window. But that has the side effect of moving focus to the beginning of the document.

I'm making progress. Necessity is the mother of invention.

After several hours of trying stuff, Docs on iOS is going to work for me. At some point, I do intend to upgrade to a current iPad and current iOS, and then I'll see what's broken with the latest technology. For now, I'm almost scared to upgrade.

I cannot escape out of the comment, and I suspect it's because there is an actual close button, so there's nothing to dismiss. That said, I'm able to leave the comment open and then navigate through the text of my Google Doc on the right side of the screen and locate the selected text that way. It's equally clunky and not ideal. If I were working with the contents of a Google Doc that I have never read, I would use an alternative method to read the information.

Thanks, that's good to know. I will almost certainly upgrade my iPad to a current model soon, and then I'll replace my clunky way of doing this with your clunky way. LOL.

Hahaha, good luck! Your VoiceOver knowledge far surpasses mine, so if you find a less clunky way of reviewing comments after you upgrade, please let us know.

Hi, all. My student and I were working in Google Docs today. She had sent me a recipe and I wanted to edit it, and have her do some editing, too. We were using our Brailliant BI-40X Braille displays and our Ipads. It seems as though the text would not scroll properly for either of us if we both had the document open and were in the same paragraph. If I hit the Done button, she could edit, and vise versa. I edited the document, closed it and then she could properly read what I had edited. Any experience collaborating with another Braille display user with in the same Google doc? Docs is new to me, and seems pretty accessible to me other than this glitch. Any thoughts? Thanks so much!

I haven’t tried collaborative editing using a Braille display. But, Braille aside, I try to avoid editing the same paragraph that someone else is working in. VoiceOver announces when multiple collaborators are in the same paragraph, and I bet that shows up on your Braille display too.

Hi. Actually, the display doesn't show the message that someone is in the same paragraph as I am. However, VoiceOver does read that information out loud so I know that this is happening. Thanks.