The measurement app within IOS 12

hi,

From what I heard on the podcasts produced by Apple Vis it isn't accessible with VO at the moment, so probably not worth worrying about for now.

Tim

I tried the measure app with VO and it is infact not fully accessible. The buttons are accessible and it gives instructions such as "no focus, add point, take picture, move IPhone". You need to have some usable vision to effectively use the app.

The only thing really useable in the Measure app right now is that the compass has been moved there.

I deleted it, always nice to have a bit more space available.

It is as accessible as they can make it now. You have to be able to take pictures of the objects is my understanding in order to get accurate measurements. I believe it's not a matter of Apple not making it accessible but the whole concept of the app.

As for the last time they put out something that wasn't accessible the old news stand ios feature springs to mind, but with that of course it was the content that wasn't accessible I believe rather than news stand.

Can't for the life of me find Measure. Perhaps this is because I'm in the UK.

For me, iOS12 put it at the very bottom of the last page of my apps.

When I updated, I found it in my "Utilities" folder.

Just to clarify, the Compass is still its own app, it's the Level that is integrated with the Measure app. So if you don't have any need of the leveller tool, you can delete the Measure altogether.

HTH!

Can't find it anywhere, sockhopsinger. Can't get siri to open it, doesn't appear to be in the list of apps in settings either.

I actually used it last night. While I do have a little usible vision, I was able to measure from one side of my bathroom to the other. Voiceover will let you know when it has focused on something so you can add a point. It will say all the text messages that come up. It's awkward though because you need to know where the camera is pointing, and what's more, I've found it really needs to be held straight up and down. Tilting it even a little seems to make the focus unable to place a point. Like I say, not fully inaccessible, just awkward and might take a little getting used to.

Found it in the app store eventually. But, on attempting to open, got a message telling me that the features of the app are incompatible with my device, I'm running a 6s.

Just another reason to upgrade.

I use a 6 Plus also and never received such a message. I used it without any trouble. A little sluggish perhaps, but not too bad.

I have been testing iOS 12 since Dev. Beta 1. The measure app is accessible. I have been able to measure several objects with it. The app itself just takes some getting used to. You will get best results if you have good lighting. I am totally blind and VO gives you voice guidance every step of the way. When you open the app you are asked to move your phone around. Once it is ready you can find your first point. Once your first point is focussed you hit the add point button. Then move the device to the end of the edge you wish to measure. When you have that point focussed you will be given that measurement. You can add more points or just hit clear. There may be better ways to use this app but I've been getting good results with it.

Sorry if anyone found my instructions confusing. I should have taken more time to make sure I was wording my post the best way I could. If you want a very clear and straight forward explanation of the measure app, you should read Jonathan Mosen's latest book. He explains the feature much better than I could ever hope to. The book describes all of the new features and how to use them.

But can you be sure you were getting accurate measurements and measuring the object you intended to measure?

I don't have a braille measuring tape so I can't verify my results for accuracy. All I can say is the results I received were close to my estimates. I also got my son to try it and his results were very similar to mine.

The app is in the utilities folder. I think blind people should gain more practice to use it. I'll try to master it one day. Maybe Apple will improve it in future updates.

Hi all. I don't worry about where the app is, I just launch it with SIRI.

As for accessibility, as others have noted, the app design requires you to place a point using the camera, so the design itself is not accessible in that respect. Nonetheless, I'm able to place points, so it's not completely unusable. What we really want it to say "give me the dimensions of that tabletop" and have it figure it out from there, but artificial intelligence and image recognition isn't quite there yet. If anyone else has ideas on how to create an accessible design for a measuring app, I'd love to hear it. Send your suggestions to Apple; don't just complain it's not accessible.

Regarding accuracy, I've also managed to use the app with my residual low vision, and I can assure you the app is only so accurate, whether using it with vision or not. However, I have never measured something and then verified it and found the Measure app to be dramatically inaccurate. Never worse than 2% off, in my experience.

Finally, I'm starting work on a blog about the Measure app. Look for it on AppleVis before the end of the month, fingers crossed.

I just came across an explanation for why some people might not be able to find the Measure app. It only runs on devices that support ARkit 2. That means an iPhone 6S or later. If you have an iPhone 5, then you have iOS 12 but you don't have the Measure app.

Thanks Paul. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and upgrade. Essentially, It's long overdue. But I'm so impressed with the performance of ios12! My phone does genuinely feel like a new phone.
Off topic completely, but I really do hope the Mac update brings the same performance and stability. I've been so enjoying the performance of ios12, in this initial release, I've written to Apple Accessibility to give them praise directly. Long may It continue.

I've posted my blog about the Measure app. I hope it's helpful and gives people some ideas about how to use the app.

After reading these replies and the blog post, this sounds very complex, especially for we VO users. Is there a more accessible measuring app we could consider instead? If not, and this veers beyond the scope of this forum, is there a standalone accessible measuring device that I might try? I frequently need to ship or return items through UPS, FedEx etc and the online form always asks for dimensions of the package. I always have to ask my wife for help and it would be nice if I could do this independently.