Disclaimer: It was suggested to me that I make a new post for the benefit of anyone who may be facing this issue. Here is to hoping it helps! 😃
The iOS version of VoiceOver has many amazing and beneficial features to make using an "i" device more accessible and efficient. The screen-reader is very robust and intuitive, and is extremely customizable to an individual's needs.
It does not come to us without its share of problems, of course. One particular issue is where Safari seems to hang when loading a web page. Anyone familiar with recent iterations of macOS should be familiar with "Safari busy..." and/or "Safari not responding...". Unfortunately there is a version of this in iOS as well.
The problem –––
VoiceOver has some really interesting features under 'Verbosity' within the VO settings of iOS. One feature is labeled "Web Rotor Summary". The purpose of this is to give a brief summary of all the controls within the page you are visiting. In a perfect world, when ever you visit a page, VoiceOver would read something like the following:
- Web page loaded
- 5 Headings, 17 Links, 3 Form Controls, 0 Radio Buttons, 2 Buttons, 0 Checkboxes, etc, etc
The problem is that there is a glitch within VO for iOS, and instead of speaking aloud the Web Summary as listed above, once the page loads VO just hangs (see: Freezes up). This is incredibly frustrating and time consuming if one is caught unawares.
The solution –––
There is a simple albeit somewhat limiting work-around to resolve this issue. Below are the steps needed to get Safari to work (more or less) better. Hopefully this will make your inter webs surfing more enjoyable.
1. (iOS & iPadOS) Go to Settings ~> Accessibility ~> VoiceOver.
2. Go to ~> Verbosity.
3. Navigate to "Web Rotor Summary" from within Verbosity, and set it to "Do nothing".
4. Toggle off and on VoiceOver.
5. Try loading a new web page.
This should make Safari load a lot faster. Please note, however, that if you are running a 3rd party browser or using extensions with Safari, then you may need to play around with those settings as well.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hopefully you will find it useful. 😃
Comments
Thanks for this.
It has made Safari behave much nicer for me. I was having frequent problems with pages just never loading which this has resolved for me. It’s also made safari much more stable feeling. Thanks again.
Big Help
This didn't completely solve the cursor getting stuck for every page, but it has certainly sped up Safari and reduced the time I spend waiting for a page to be accessible when I can see it has loaded. Thanks again for this tip!
Alas, this stopped working…
Alas, this stopped working after later iOS 17 updates. Now the page freezing is worse and the problem has spread to the app switcher and mail apps among others.
Unfortunate.
Apple pretty much broke Webkit this year. Maybe in iOS 18 it will be fixed. 🫣
Another update
At least with Safari, I found that there's a huge page load lag when using any screen darkening extension. The lag doesn't happen when Voiceover is turned off. So at least in some cases it's the darkening script, but alas smart invert is not good enough to use on its own when you need to get rid of the white backgrounds on just about every website in order to function. Still doesn't explain the freezing and loading times in basic iOS apps like mail and messages. They really dropped the ball with this release.
Re: Another update
Have you tried out any 3rd party browsers? If not, I would highly recommend Firefox and Firefox Focus for iOS.
The Firefox browser on iOS is really nice, and from my observations, a great replacement for Safari for iOS.
When you first launch the browser, it may feel like you are being overloaded with info, but the customization options are where this browser shine. Currently my Firefox, on first launch, feels nearly identical to Safari, including element placement and functionality.
If you are sick of Safari, give it a shot. I think you would like it.
Firefox Focus, is a separate browser, that takes Firefox, but pretty much maxes out all the privacy features. It is kind of like Duck Duck Go, where privacy and Security are the primary focus.
HTH.