Navigating iOS: Mastering VoiceOver Basics with VO Starter

In this episode, Ida Grace demonstrates VO Starter, an iOS app specifically designed to assist new blind and visually impaired users in learning how to navigate their devices using Apple’s built-in screen reader, VoiceOver. The app offers step-by-step guidance, teaching basic VoiceOver gestures and simplifying the learning process.

VO Starter on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/vo-starter/id6455786629

transcription:
Disclaimer: This transcript is generated by AIKO, an automated transcription service. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

And good afternoon AppleViz.

This is Ida and it is currently 2 o' 5 p.m.

Central Time and I am here with a podcast tutorial on VoStarter.

This app is an app that teaches voiceover for iOS users.

It does assume some basic knowledge of voiceover, I've noticed.

The first couple lessons start out pretty simple, but then it quickly jumps into more advanced things.

So I will be demonstrating a few of the lessons and making some comments as I go.

So here we go, open VoStarter.

Ok. Welcome to VoStarter for iOS.

After completion of these tutorials, you will have been introduced to nearly all of the concepts associated with using voiceover on your iOS device.

To get started, simply double tap the screen with one finger.

This will begin the first lesson.

Good luck on your journey.

Ok that is the introduction.

You can also, if you don't want voiceover to read it to you, you can swipe over to the continue, I mean the listen button, sorry.

Welcome to Arctic to Gifts.

Good luck toolbar.

Listen.

Button.

Yeah this toolbar has a menu button which is where you go to select a lesson if you've completed this tutorial or if you want to skip ahead a little bit and later in the tutorial there is also a continue button that appears on this menu.

But for now, if we double tap on listen.

Welcome to VoStarter for iOS.

After completion of these tutorials, you will have been introduced to nearly all of the concepts associated with using voiceover on your iOS device.

To get started, simply double tap the screen with one finger.

This will begin the first lesson.

Good luck on your journey.

Ok here's what I don't like about this though.

Even when you're on the listen button and it says simply double tap the screen with one finger, well if I do that now from the listen button, it's not going to continue.

After completion of these tutorials, you will be introduced to nearly all of the concepts associated with using voiceover on your iOS device.

To get started, simply double tap the screen with one finger.

But not there.

This will begin the first lesson.

Good luck on your journey.

So what you have to do is swipe back to the left.

Now there's a lesson later in this tutorial on flicking which is also swiping but I'm sure most of you AppleVis users already know about swiping and double tapping.

So we're going to flick back to the left.

Menu.

Good luck on your journey.

Ok. Now, one thing I want to let you know is that because the continue button has not yet appeared, what you need to do to go to the next lesson is double tap anywhere on this text.

So either where it says, to get started, simply double tap the screen with one finger or good luck on your journey.

I double tap here and it still works.

Voiceover for iOS can be started using several different methods.

We will voiceover for iOS.

Ok. Do you notice how it started reading and then it stopped and restarted itself?

I don't know.

That is one bug that I have found in this app and I don't know exactly why it does that.

I guess it takes a while to load everything but this lesson talks about how to start voiceover which is funny because voiceover is supposed to already be on when you're doing this because in the introduction, as we just heard, it said simply double tap the screen with one finger which assumes that voiceover is already running.

So then this lesson is telling you how to start voiceover.

Well, voiceover is already started.

So this is one thing that doesn't make sense about this app.

Another thing I have noticed is that there is a little bit of inconsistency between what voiceover reads and what the artificial intelligence voice reads when you hit the listen button.

I will look for an example of this but I did find an example of this.

Let me start backbuttoning, starting voiceover, heading, voiceover for iOS can be started using several different methods.

We will discuss them on this screen.

Okay.

And I'm sure you already know the methods but I am looking for an inconsistency between because I found one earlier as I was finalizing my notes using this app and finalizing my notes for this podcast as far as what I wanted to go over.

So I am going to read through this because I believe the inconsistency was on this page.

And I do have a home button on this iPad.

I have an old iPad because I'm an old person.

No, I'm kidding.

Method one, when setting up a brand new iOS device for the first time, press the home button three times when the device first powers up.

You have to do that quickly.

Method two, if Siri is enabled on the device, press and hold the home button, then say turn on voiceover.

Siri will confirm that it has been enabled for devices without a home button.

And actually my phone does not have a home button.

I have an iPhone 13 mini.

Method one, when setting up a brand new iOS device for the first time, press the side button three times when the device first powers up.

Okay.

I am scared to do that because I also happen to know that pressing the side button rapidly a certain amount of times dials emergency services.

So I don't want to accidentally call emergency services when I'm trying to turn voiceover on so I didn't set that accessibility shortcut up.

Method two, if Siri is enabled on the device, press and hold the home button, then say turn on voiceover.

Siri will confirm that it has been enabled.

Okay.

Let me check this.

Method two, if Siri is enabled on the device, press and hold the home button, then say turn on voiceover.

Siri will confirm that it has been enabled.

Okay, see, method two, it's saying press and hold the home button, but this is under the devices without a home button.

So what it means to say is press and hold the side button on devices without a home button.

And that is the method I use is I use Siri to turn voiceover on and off because it works just as well as an accessibility shortcut and I don't risk calling emergency services needlessly, which is a very bad idea.

For any device.

For any device, with or without a home button, you can use the following methods.

Method three, if Siri is not enabled, ask a sighted person to open settings on the iOS device.

Navigate to access.

Okay, this, I'm not going to make it read the whole thing because all of you probably know these methods, but I wanted to point out an inconsistency.

You just heard it say, ask a sighted person.

But if I swipe over to listen.

Listen, voiceover for iOS can be started using several different methods.

We will discuss them on this screen for devices with a home button.

Method one, when setting up a brand new iOS device for the first time, press the home button three times when the device first powers up.

Method two, if Siri is enabled on the device, press and hold the home button, then say turn on voiceover.

Siri will confirm that it has been enabled for devices without a home button.

Method one, when setting up a brand new iOS device for the first time, press the side button three times when the device first powers up.

Method two, if Siri is enabled on the device, press and hold the home button, then say turn on voiceover.

Siri will confirm that it has been enabled for any device.

Method three, if Siri is not enabled, ask a person with sight to open the iOS device.

Navigate to accessibility.

Near the top of the screen is a button for voiceover.

Tap on that and then turn the voiceover switch on.

You may need to double tap with one finger on the OK button in the warning dialog that is displayed.

Double tap on the screen with one finger to continue to the next lesson.

But again, don't double tap here because I'm still on the listen button.

So there are two inconsistencies on this page.

One is in the text where it says for devices without a home button, it tells you to hold the home button to activate Siri.

And the second consistency is between the text and the AI voice.

So the text says ask a sighted person to find voiceover.

The AI voice, if you're listening to it, says ask a person with sight.

So it's not a big deal on this page, but I'm just letting you know that there are inconsistencies here.

There are a few more scattered throughout, but I'm not going to go through all of this because I know that you all are mostly expert voiceover users.

But if you're not, this app is a good place to start at least these first few lessons.

So if you want to continue to the next page, don't double tap here because I'm still on the listen button.

I have to swipe back to the left menu, double tap on the screen with one finger to continue to the next lesson.

Okay.

Anywhere on this text, I can double tap using the same methods from the previous lesson.

VoiceOver can also be disabled using the same methods from.

Yeah, it started and then it stopped and started over again.

But now it's talking about how to disable voiceover, which I only have to do sometimes.

Or if I want one of my sighted friends to look at a picture, because yes, I do sometimes take pictures or have somebody take pictures for me, even though I can't see them myself.

I do power voiceover off to let the person look at the picture because I keep my screen curtain on and then I have them give my phone back to me and I use Siri to power voiceover back on.

So, that is how I use the previous methods.

And this screen is describing that voiceover can be disabled using the exact same methods.

Activate Siri and say, use the app if your device has a home button.

Okay, so I can double tap anywhere on this within the text of this lesson to continue.

Go to settings by tap heading not found.

Stop it. iOS offers a convenient method for enabling and disabling its accessibility features. iOS offers a convenient- Yeah, I don't know why it starts reading and then starts over.

Find the settings app on your home screen and open it by double tapping- Okay, this page is explaining how to set up accessibility shortcuts.

I've always had trouble doing that.

When I first got my iPad, I had a friend set up the voiceover accessibility shortcut.

And like I said, I haven't done it on my phone because I'm scared of pressing the side button rapidly because it also does dial emergency services and I don't need that to happen when I'm trying to turn voiceover on or off.

Nope.

Double tap the screen to continue.

Okay.

It is now time to practice what we have learned.

Using one of the methods- It is now time to practice what we have learned.

Using one of the methods described.

Try turning off or on voiceover.

We will continue when voiceover is back on again.

Okay, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to press my home button three times quickly and this is my iPad, by the way, so we don't have to worry about anything happening, any unnecessary phone calls because my iPad cannot make phone calls.

So we are going to press the home button three times quickly and when I do, you're going to hear voiceover power down and then you're going to hear the in-app voice.

VoStarter has an in-app voice that will speak to us once as soon as voiceover powers down.

So here we go.

Oh.

Oopsies.

Okay.

Let's do it three times, not twice, Ida.

Screen now, turn voiceover back on to continue.

If you need help, tell Siri to turn voiceover on or request assistance from your instructor if possible.

I do not have an instructor here and I do not want to, Siri, I don't need to because this device can't make phone calls.

So we're going to use the home button again, one, two, three.

Voiceover on.

VioStarter, back at landscape.

Great work.

You can now enable and disable voiceover.

Doing this will become easier in time, but for now, we will move on to navigating your device's screen.

Double tap to continue.

Okay the next few lessons are going to cover single tapping, double tapping, split tapping and flicking.

So I'm not going to make you listen to all of this just because I know you people are very very expert at voiceover, most of you, so I'm not going to make you listen to this whole thing.

I will come back when I run across the next thing I would like to show you.

Okay, one thing I did want to mention is right after the voiceover enable disable practice in the next screen, when it starts talking about double tapping and single tapping, the continue button has now appeared on the toolbar with the listen button and the menu button we now have a continue button, so we don't have to double tap on the text anymore.

So, we will continue to use the continue button now.

After the lessons on swiping, double tapping and split tapping, we move on to the magic tap, which of course is the two finger double tap.

To play and pause audio, this can also help you interact with Facebook posts and it can help you answer calls and end calls.

Magic tap is a wonderful thing, but I am back because we are going to talk about using magic tap for dictation and you're going to get to hear how weird I actually am.

Continue button, continue button, back button, dictating text, dictating text.

One method to enter text in almost any text field in iOS is to use dictation.

A text field is a place where iOS asks you to write something using the on screen keyboard, an external keyboard, Braille display or dictation, or Braille screen input, which will also be covered in this app.

There will be a text field on the next page that will take up the entire screen.

Simply find it by tapping the middle of the screen once and then double tapping or split tapping to display the keyboard.

Now that the keyboard is shown, you can perform a magic tap anywhere on the screen, which will play a single tone, alerting you that you can now start dictating text.

Say what you would like to enter into the text field, and then perform a second magic tap to stop dictation.

A higher pitched tone will be heard, and voiceover will speak what dictation heard.

Once you have dictated text, feel free to press the continue button.

Notice that it is now in the upper right corner.

If you want to review what your text says, simply touch the middle of the screen again and voiceover will read what is in the text field.

Okay, now this iPad has an external Bluetooth keyboard, but I am not going to use it.

I have it powered off right now because I want the on screen keyboard to be shown because I have noticed that if my Bluetooth keyboard is powered on, the dictation button doesn't show up for me.

So see the continue button does move to the upper right, and it's dimmed right now, which means we can't press it because we have to do this first.

So I'm going to do it.

Okay, we're going to use the rotor to access miss miss miss yes yes yes yes yes don't tell me how to use the rotor.

I know we're going to double tap on the text field and then I'm going to do the magic tap for dictation and you're all going to hear how weird Ida actually is double tap and then use the magic tap to dictate to hello period I am recording a podcast for VO starter for Apple this period M E E P M E E P okay, I stopped the dictation but voiceover did not read it so I'm going to tap the middle of the screen and see if it actually heard me accurately text field he's editing hello I am recording a podcast for VO starter for Apple verse meet me insertion point I'm in okay well it heard double tap Apple verse instead of Apple this but it heard my meet meep which was what I wanted so I'm happy I have to make this fun yes I know the website is called Apple this not Apple verse dictation isn't great but it's fine okay I'm going to hit done done hello I am recording a podcast for VO starter for Apple verse meet me okay so when I hit the done button now we're not able to edit text anymore so the done button just made it so that we can't actually edit the text field anymore until unless we double tap on it again but you're all probably tired of hearing how weird I am so I'm going to move on oh that's right continue button is up here okay if I have any more weirdness or important stuff to share with you I will be back okay one thing that I want to share is that after the dictation lesson where I had a bunch of fun you know meeping and saying that I'm recording a podcast for Apple this and it heard Apple verse there's not much left in this tutorial app to actually interact with the rest of this app is basically reading the lessons they don't give you much to do to actually practice and learn the lessons and it's jumping to advanced stuff pretty quickly so like the next the next section after dictation and your magic tap is the rotor and then they're going automatically into editing text and I'm like I feel like there needs to be a little bit more voiceover bit I don't see that as basic I mean I've been using that's just because I've been using voiceover for years and I still have trouble editing text on an Apple device so maybe that's just because of what I am incapable of doing but I really don't feel like editing text is a basic I feel like that's more intermediate advanced but again that's because I still don't do well with editing text so I myself would not consider that a basic command on an Apple device but that's only because I can't do it I have trouble with it let's just say that but then it'll jump into braille screen input and then it's just going to vary I think this app advances a little bit too quickly but other people are free to disagree and that's fine there used to be an app on the app store called vo tutorial or something that I think took things a lot slower and easier than this app does and like I said this app doesn't give you much else to interact with the vo tutorial app which I haven't seen the app store in a while gives you a lot more practice tools that you can actually interact with and it's not just reading a lecture basically like this app does okay here's another thing that I don't understand and again this is just the way I would do things and it doesn't make sense in my brain but it might make sense in other people's brains this app teaches voiceover I think in a somewhat random order for example first it tells you about swiping and tapping and double tapping and split tapping and magic tapping and then you go into how to use the rotor how to edit text how to do all these advanced things then the next section is on the home screen and lock screen and status bar and it tells you to use simple gestures again like flicking and tapping and exploring by touch I would have put those sections back in those lessons but again that's just me but like here I'm in I'm exploring a lesson on the status bar which is after the rotor lessons but it's telling me that all I have to do to navigate the status bar as you all know is tap the top of the screen single tap which has already been covered in this app and then swipe through the items on the status bar which again swiping or flicking has already been covered and then you have to single tap and explore by touch somewhere else on the screen to get out of the status bar which again has already been covered so I feel like the lessons on the status bar and the home screen and the lock screen especially the status bar should have been included back when it was talking about a single tap and I understand like they don't want to overwhelm me with information but I feel like this app kind of already does that so no offense if the developers are listening to this I hope you take this as constructive criticism but it's just very it would be very confusing to me I'm trying to look at it from the perspective of somebody who doesn't know voiceover who has not been using it as long as I have and I think I would be very confused if I was taught to single tap and double tap and then it switched and went into using the rotor and then it went back to single tapping and double tapping I can kind of see if it's a review and if you have an instructor with you I guess they assume that you've been practicing those gestures but just just something to point out this app I think teaches voiceover in a bit of a random order and there are more examples of that but I just wanted to bring that to your attention okay after the status bar and home screen control center notification center then it takes you back into a lesson on editing text and typing text and text fields so this time there will be a text field and this is one other example of something that voiceover the video starter app does let you actually interact with so I will read this to you actually I'll have it play it for you make tool list continue listen editing text is an important part of using an iOS device in a previous lesson we used magic tap to dictate text into a text area but there will be times where dictation is not an option text fields are areas on the screen that allow you to enter small amounts of text this is typically used for things like adding information to contacts or signing in to online services when you double tap on a text field an on screen keyboard will appear at the bottom of your screen this will also occur when you activate a text area which will be discussed later to type on the on screen keyboard simply drag your finger to the letter you want to type and double tap this is called standard typing on the next screen you will have the chance to try typing in a text field listen to the instructions and then find the text field and double tap you will need to type the correct characters and then check your answer to continue there may be numbers and symbols that are not on the main keyboard unless you are on an iPad pro to access numbers and symbols you will need to find the numbers key on the keyboard and double tap okay and just so you know again my Bluetooth keyboard is currently powered off because I really want you all to know how that and you have heard me type on my Bluetooth keyboard in previous podcasts that I've done or use my Bluetooth keyboard because that is normally what I do but I am doing it without the keyboard because I want to demonstrate this but when my Bluetooth keyboard is powered on the on screen keyboard does disappear and I don't know if this is the same if a braille display is connected or if you have another keyboard connected but for me if my Bluetooth keyboard is on the on screen keyboard is hidden and I don't know if people are using a braille display I don't know if the on screen keyboard is hidden as well but my Bluetooth keyboard when it is on causes the on screen keyboard to be hidden but because I am not using the Bluetooth keyboard right now you should hear the on screen keyboard so what are the instructions here text fields heading please click right to the text field and double tap and enter the following text at one hundred and twenty three that is a b c space one two three once you are done press the check answer button with a go key on the keyboard and if your answer is correct find continue okay so it's it's having you type a certain thing in so it's going to be a b c one two three all lower case so it's this is another area where voice over will let you do this enter a b c one hundred and twenty three here insertion point and then okay so I've double tapped on the text field let's see how great my standard typing skills are because I honestly do not use this method very much because I'm either using my Bluetooth keyboard or dictation slash braille screen input on my phone please click right to the text text check answer check toolbar continue menu type people numbers oh here they are okay I was gonna say where is the on screen keyboard space dictate emote dictate hey the dictate button is available I'm not gonna cheat I'm not emoji okay we're gonna go okay well my standard clearly stinks so I'm not gonna make you listen to this I do know how to do it it's just not letting me do it and the on screen keyboard is being a pain in the butt right now because my iPad is used to me using a Bluetooth keyboard I guess but you're basically supposed to type a b c space one two three just as it said in the instructions so yeah definitely something I know I need to work on Apple this editorial team no need to comment on how sucky my standard typing skills are please thank you okay so after text fields it discusses text areas which are multi-line text fields so it's where you can edit and enter longer passages of text like in a word processor and it wants you to practice on-screen keyboard standard typing I'm not going to do that I am just going to type with my Bluetooth keyboard and you can all hear how weird I am again so I'm on the text field double tap to enter text and I'm going to type I am cheating in the CEO starter app because I stink at standard typing and I press the return enter key of course and then I'm going to type okay so turning quick nav off I'm gonna play the text that I wrote keep text field is editing I am cheating in the verse starter app because I stink at standard typing meet me insertion point I guess it includes a meep as well okay use toolbar done you okay we're gonna hit done because we don't need to edit anymore in the most daughter at because I stink at standard typing meet me it's true toolbar menu hey at least I tried it okay I don't know why it wasn't letting me do it but at least I tried menu button oh the continue button is up at the top right again because this text area takes up the whole screen continue having not found continue now we're moving on okay the last thing I want to discuss in this app is the menu as you probably heard as I am exploring this app you probably heard the menu button appear on the toolbar several times this menu will allow you to choose to jump to a specific lesson so the first thing you get to in the menu start button is just a simple start button that will take you to the beginning of the we oh starter lessons view starter heading about button okay so that is gonna of course tell you about the app the current app version model build everything voiceover basics headings now these are all divided up into little headings and sections starting voiceover learn how to start and stop voiceover and if you double tap on these it'll jump you directly to that section and of course in this podcast I didn't go through all of the video starter apps lessons during this podcast I just came on to tell you what I've noticed about this app and also to be a little silly and humorous because every podcast needs a little bit of humor basic gestures learn the basics of clicking and double tapping with voiceover okay magic tap learn about the magic tap feature of iOS the rotor learn to use the voiceover rotor using the home and lock screens learn how to navigate the home and lock screens so this menu is presenting the lessons in the order in which we oh starter presents them which is not necessarily the order that people would teach them I certainly wouldn't teach them in this order and you'll see why in a minute status bar control center editing text learn how to edit text in iOS multi-finger gestures learn about more advanced features that work with voiceover okay and this okay I will say this does kind of make sense because the multi-finger gestures do a little bit more advanced functioning than editing text and everything but to me at the same time it's like while you're teaching the one finger and two finger gestures why not teach the three and four finger gestures and put all the gestures together but what what they did I do think makes a little bit of sense but I I can see other ways of doing it as well online resources learn about available online resources okay that's the last section of the tutorial it gives you all sorts of online resources that can help you continue exploring voiceover including Apple this Apple this.com is in their online resources section online resources okay about available online resources that is vo starter app switcher plot and 307 p.m. so and I started at 205 so it's been about an hour and two minutes and that was not all recording so thank you all so much for joining me for this app demonstration I hope that those of you who are just starting out with voiceover or those of you who are teaching people who are new to voiceover find some of this at least useful if you have any questions concerns about my sanity after hearing my hilarious typing mishaps comments on the tutorial anything you can email me at rainbow.girl.radioatgmail.com and remember I only contact you and communicate via email until I feel comfortable giving out other methods of communication until then have a wonderful meeperful day bye.

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