ListeningAcuity

Basic Voice Over Gestures

Four and five finger gestures are more for the iPad; however, there are a couple four finger gestures that work on the iPhone.

When you think of using the gestures on Apple portable devices, you can group them in 10 different fingering actions. Think of them in this way: touching, tapping, swiping or flicking, dragging, touch and hold, scrubbing, drawing, twisting, and shaking. There are other gestures than these, but they are the basic ones used with VoiceOver.

I have broken down each one of these gestures into logical groups. Now, what is logical to me might not be logical to someone else; but, bear with me through the rest of this document and see if you can notice the pattern that I am using. One more thing: the basic gestures can be done with one or more fingers, and that is how I chose to look at them for this document.

1 Finger

  1. Dragging: Selects what is touched on the screen and speaks it.
  2. Swiping: Swiping left or right moves forward or back by element or icon. Swiping up or down will spell the icon that you have in focus if the Rotor is set on characters. You can continue changing the rotor to other choices, and swiping up and down will move or change by that option.
  3. Single Tap: Selects the icon or text under your finger that is touched and speaks it.
  4. Double Tap: Opens or chooses the icon or item selected. When in an edit box, focuses the cursor at the top or at the bottom of the edit window.
  5. Double Tap and Hold: This is where you will swipe to the text or icon on the screen where you wish to complete an action with that spot. For example, if you wish to delete text that you just dictated or manually typed out, you can drag around near the bottom right to find the delete button on the screen, then double tap anywhere on the screen with one finger and hold your finger down on the second tap. This will delete all the text that you have inserted before that point.
  6. Triple Tap: Usually performs a double tap.
  7. Quadruple Tap: Does nothing.

2 Fingers

  1. Dragging: N/A.
  2. Swiping: Swiping up reads from the top of the window to the bottom. Swiping down reads from the cursor to the bottom of the window.
  3. Single Tap: Can be used to stop the speech from speaking. Touching the screen again will continue speaking again.
  4. Double Tap: Turns on/off the music, movie, or audio program that is playing. Answers or cancels a call on the iPhone. Turns on Dictation while in an edit field instead of finding the Dictate button. Repeat the same command to turn off the Dictation feature.
  5. Double Tap and Hold: Activates the “Label Element” feature. This is how you can change the name of a folder, picture, title, etc. to what makes sense to you.
  6. Triple Tap: Opens a list of all programs or folders on your device called the “Item Chooser.”
  7. Quadruple Tap: N/A.

3 Fingers

  1. Dragging: N/A.
  2. Swiping:
    • Swiping left or right changes pages or screens backwards and forward if possible.
    • Swiping down with three fingers opens the status menu once any item is selected on the Status Bar.
    • Swiping up while you are in a list or in a document moves down by screen.
    • Swiping down while you are in a list or in a document moves up by screen.
    • Swiping down with any icon in focus and on any page of the Home Screen will open Spotlight Search.
    • Touch the Status Bar with one finger and swipe down with three fingers to access the Notifications area.
    • Touch the Status Bar and swipe up with three fingers to access the Control Center.
  3. Single Tap: Seems to announce where the cursor is located.
  4. Double Tap: Turns speech off or on. Note: VoiceOver gestures are still observed. Do not confuse this with turning VoiceOver off or on.
  5. Triple Tap: Turns the screen dark or does not let you see the icons. This is called the Screen Curtain feature. It is used for VoiceOver-only users to enhance confidentiality. Repeat this command to turn off the Screen Curtain or show the icons again. It can also save on battery life.
  6. Quadruple Tap: Selects and copies the last spoken chunk of text by VoiceOver. It is like using the options in the rotor, but does the selecting and copying all in one step.

4 Fingers

  1. Dragging: N/A.
  2. Swiping: Swipe left or right to switch between opened apps in the order that they were opened.
  3. Single Tap: Moves to and focuses the cursor at the top of the screen if you touch the top half of the screen. Moves to the last icon or option of what is in view on the screen if you touch the bottom half.
  4. Double Tap: Opens VoiceOver Help from anywhere. Repeat the same command to close the help again.
  5. Triple Tap: N/A.
  6. Quadruple Tap: None.

Shaking Gesture

This is only if you have turned this feature on. If you just typed or dictated something into an editable box, you can shake your phone or iPod and it will give you the option to delete the last chunk of text.

Rotor Commands

  1. Place two fingers on the screen about an inch apart and twist your fingers as if you are turning a knob.
  2. Another way to access the rotor commands is to place both thumbs on the sides of the screen and swipe one thumb down and the other thumb up quickly at the same time. Make sure they are about at least one-inch-long swipes. Each combined swipe is usually about one setting on the rotor knob.
  3. Repeat the swiping to switch to different options on the rotor.
  4. You can reverse the finger swiping option to rotate backwards through the same options.
  5. Your choice of options will change depending on the window you currently have in focus.
  6. For example: if you are on the Internet, you will have more options that will help you navigate a web page, i.e., links, headings, lines, etc. While in an edit box, you have more edit and typing options.
  7. Once you rotate to the option you want, swipe with one finger up or down to select different choices of that option, if any.
  8. There are many selections that you can add to the rotor for easy access in the VoiceOver settings.

App Switcher Commands

Reopening a Program That Is Minimized

On Phones That Have a Home Button

  1. Double tap the Home key to open the App Switcher.
  2. Swipe left or right to focus the app you wish to reopen.
  3. Double tap the screen with one finger to reopen that app.

Phones Without a Home Button

  1. Place your finger at the bottom of the screen until you hear a sound like “doop.” If you don’t hear it, lift your finger and touch the screen again until you hear it.
  2. Drag your finger up until you hear two more “doops” and lift your finger. The cursor will be placed in the App Switcher.
  3. Swipe left or right to focus the app you wish to reopen.
  4. Double tap the screen with one finger to reopen that app.

Closing Apps in the App Switcher

With Phones That Have a Home Button

  1. Double tap the Home key to open the App Switcher.
  2. Swipe right or left until you hear the first app that can be closed.
  3. If you want to close it, you can use one of two commands:
    1. A three-finger swipe up will immediately close that app.
    2. Or, swipe up with one finger to hear the Close option and then the name of the app, and double tap with one finger to close the app.

    The next app will usually appear under the cursor, so you can do a three-finger swipe up to delete quickly or double tap with one finger.

    If you do not want to close a particular app, use one finger to swipe left or right to the next app and perform a close-app command of your choice. The double-tap option will stay in focus until you swipe down once with one finger to the Activate option.

  4. When you think you have closed all the apps desired, swipe left and right to hear what apps are left. If all the apps you want are closed, press the Home key to close the App Switcher and return to the Home Screen. Or, without the Home key, touch the bottom of the screen to hear that “doop” sound and drag up the screen until you hear one more “doop” and lift your finger.

With a Phone That Does Not Have a Home Button

  1. Place your finger at the bottom of the screen until you hear a “bloop” sound. If you don’t hear it, lift your finger and touch the screen again until you hear it.
  2. Slowly drag your finger up until you hear two more “bloops” and lift your finger. This will open the App Switcher.
  3. Navigate right until you hear the first app.
  4. Use three fingers to swipe up to close that app if you wish.
  5. Repeat step four as many times as needed until all the apps you want are closed.
  6. If you have closed all the apps in the App Switcher, it will close on its own and return you to the app that was open before or to the Home Screen.

Phone Commands

  1. Answering a call: Two-finger double tap.
  2. Hanging up after a call: Two-finger double tap.
  3. Speaker phone: Move the phone away from your ear. If that isn’t working, find the Speaker button on the screen and double tap it. There is also a setting that can be turned on so it will automatically switch to speaker phone when you move the phone from your ear.
  4. Pressing Volume Up and Volume Down while the phone is pressed to your ear will change the earpiece volume.
  5. When the phone is on speaker, adjusting the volume will increase or decrease the speaker volume.
  6. See SIRI commands for other hands-free phone options.