Maybe it’s not Apple with the problem: Maybe it’s us

iOS 11

A few days ago, I discovered an article written by someone in the blind community criticizing a new feature that has been implemented in iOS 11.

Background:

In iOS 11, Apple has implemented a new feature dealing with the way VoiceOver manages the Actions Rotor in the Mail App. If you are familiar with the way the App switcher worked in iOS 10, you’ll recognize this behavior. Now, if you delete one message or perform any other action on it, that action will stay selected until you manually change it. This is a big change in behavior from before, when the action would return to the default setting after performing an action on a message.

What we’re seeing now

The blind community has become very divided and upset over this feature. Claims have been made that this is inconsistent with typical rotor behavior, that it is half-baked, that it’s a step backward in accessibility, and that it sets a dangerous standard for Apple to model.

The reality is this: this new feature is a change. It is a deviation from the typical behavior that we have seen in the rotor for years. Unfortunately, it seems that members of the blind community find it difficult to deal with these changes and retrain their brains. This is a big part of being successful in the world: we must have the capability to adapt and problem solve. Things will not always remain the same. We cannot expect Apple to hold back on a potentially game-changing feature just so that its user base does not have to deal with a new environment. The feature is a huge productivity boost for those of us who delete a bunch of emails at once, receiving hundreds of messages a day from mailing lists. It’s faster than selecting the edit button then selecting the messages to delete. The feature is buggy, yes, but it will continue to improve, that is, if we don’t stop it in its tracks from our constant complaints.

Yes, people struggle with the rotor. Yes, older people may have difficulty, but if we are going to train someone in using technology, it’s less about training them in how to do something than it is training them how to solve problems that come up. No one can plan for every single situation that arises. No one can teach for every single possible quirk, crash, or inconsistency in an operating system. Apple’s operating system has never been aimed at the older age group specifically, so comments that I have seen about this feature being detrimental to older blind folks is ridiculous. We, as blind people, have a hard enough time getting mainstream developers to listen to us and make their products accessible without complaining that advances they’re trying to make in our productivity are bad things. Let’s learn to adapt and remember that sighted people have to deal with these changes, too. With each new OS release comes new features, new ways of doing things, and, in some cases, new bugs, for all people, not just the disabled. It’s not just us who have to learn. If we insist that things remain the same, how can we expect companies to develop new and innovative technology for us? How can we expect anything to get any better without a little brain retraining every now and again?

Commentary: Are VoiceOver Actions a Help or a Hindrance?

Image showing VoiceOver icon. icon is a grey gradient to white with a universal access symbol and a speaker with sound waves going to the right.

Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of iAccessibility.

As I’m sure most VoiceOver users know, there is an “Actions” item in the VoiceOver rotor in iOS. This is a very handy item as it allows for tasks to be accomplished faster without the need to tap through app menus, or perform a passthrough (double tap and hold on an item). An easy example of this would be deleting messages in the Messages app. Simply find a message, set the rotor to “Actions” if it’s not automatically set for you, flick up or down to “Delete,” and double tap. Your message is then deleted. It really does help speed things up.

So what am I complaining about? From time to time, I’ve been in the really neat position of being able to help a sighted person with there iPhone. It’s not neat because I get bragging rights or anything, just that with VoiceOver, I can use the same device and mostly, use it in the same way a sighted person can, all be it with some changed gestures, obviously. But getting back to the topic at hand, let’s say a sighted person asked me how to delete messages from there iPhone. I wouldn’t tell them to turn on VoiceOver, learn the basic gestures so they can navigate the screen, then use actions to delete there message, I’d tell them how to do it without VoiceOver enabled, and that’s where I’ve run into a bit of a problem. You see, as I was writing this article, I realized I had forgotten exactly how one would go about deleting messages from an iPhone without VoiceOver enabled. Because of VoiceOver actions, I no longer had to remember things like that. I could just flick up or down, choose what I wanted and double tap on it. While that’s really great, it doesn’t help me remember how to use an app normally, and that’s a problem.

To make matters worse, you have apps that detect that VoiceOver is enabled, and only allow you to use VoiceOver actions to perform certain tasks. Twitterrific is one such app. I wish we could either unselect “Actions” in the rotor, or add an item to quickly turn actions on or off like you can with Hints, Sounds, and Audio ducking. VoiceOver would behave as it did before they were introduced. I would also want to be able to perform a swipe without having to do a passthrough. I feel that this could be accomplished by allowing the three finger gestures to perform swipes when appropriate. This already happens in the app switcher. A sighted person swipes up on the app they wish to close, and of course a VoiceOver user can do a three finger swipe up which will perform the same action. Again, you can use VoiceOver actions to close apps and switch to them, but I find using the three finger swipe to close an app and double tapping on an app to switch to it is much faster for me.

So what do you think? Do you agree? Am I crazy? Follow us around the web and tell us what you think. We love hearing from you.

Back to Top