This post is a translated and condensed version of the original article: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/843626.
ChatGPT was used to help refine the English wording and shorten the content to meet the 7,000-word limit. The original meaning and key suggestions have been retained as much as possible.
A Letter to Apple’s Accessibility Engineering Team
1. Purpose
I am a visually impaired user from Hong Kong and have used iPhone VoiceOver and Zoom for many years. I have encountered issues with zoom gestures, focus handling, and pop-up navigation. Please log these proposals and diagnostic files as a formal feature request and forward them to Apple’s Asia-Pacific accessibility engineering team.
2. User Feedback Challenges
Many visually impaired users face similar barriers, but official feedback often receives no follow-up. Front-line staff may lack the expertise to communicate these issues accurately, so reports can be treated as general usability problems rather than accessibility concerns. Small system changes could help many people, while active reporters represent only a fraction of those affected.
3. Screen Zoom Gestures
When VoiceOver is enabled, activating Zoom with a three-finger double-tap can be difficult for people with hand tremors or limited dexterity. Coordinating three fingers makes it hard to target an area accurately, pan smoothly, and maintain consistent screen contact.
The Zoom Controller can obscure content and may be accidentally activated alongside nearby controls. Apple could explore simpler gestures like Android’s magnification, which uses one finger to activate and two fingers to adjust or pan, while retaining the zoom level after the fingers leave the screen.
4. VoiceOver Gestures and Focus
4.1 Customisable Gestures
Common actions can require navigating several Rotor options. Add customisable gesture combinations, such as swiping up then down or left then right, to trigger shortcuts. Customisable virtual bars along both screen edges could also provide audio or haptic feedback when touched and held, then trigger shortcuts when users swipe up or down by different distances.
4.2 Automatic Focus Grouping
In third-party apps, labels and their switches are often separate VoiceOver focus elements. Automatically grouping related labels and switches would let VoiceOver announce the information and allow users to operate the switch without an extra swipe.
5. Contrast and Selection Visibility
System switches can be difficult for users with low vision to distinguish. Consider a highly saturated dark-blue track when enabled, with a contrasting thumb colour, to make its state clearer than the grey disabled track.
Make Settings checkmarks bolder or give selected items a dark background. In multi-select lists, consider a separate tab for selected items or automatically moving selected items to the top. This would make selection states easier to identify visually and with VoiceOver.
6. Native iOS Keyboard
- Keyboard size and editing: Allow keyboard-height adjustment and an optional full-screen text-editing mode for reviewing text in small third-party fields.
- High contrast: Offer a black keyboard with white text and keep its appearance consistent across apps when Dark Mode or Smart Invert is enabled.
- Dictation: Let users start dictation by holding the space bar and stop when they release it.
- Chinese speech-to-text: Improve language models and use sentence context to distinguish homophones and correct errors, especially for long dictation by VoiceOver users.
7. Assistive Access
Assistive Access can disable VoiceOver gestures, including swiping up from the bottom to return Home. Improve compatibility between the two features.
Consider adding power-saving options such as reducing screen resolution and CPU frequency, using a pure-black theme, and disabling image loading. These options could help users with older devices, visual impairments, or other accessibility needs.
8. Real-Time AI Screen Recognition
Third-party apps may have buttons that cannot receive accessibility focus, missing labels, or controls that existing screen recognition cannot identify. Apple could develop system-level AI to analyse screens in real time, identify interface elements, generate labels, and make interactive controls actionable.
If reliable enough, this could address more barriers at system level. Apple could also explore a shared accessibility-label database where users submit corrections that synchronise across apps and devices.
9. Navigation and Pop-up Dismissal
With VoiceOver, returning to a previous page often means swiping through elements to find a small Back button. Expand its accessibility hit area so it is easier to locate and activate.
Close and Cancel buttons appear in inconsistent locations, and pop-ups, nested menus, or keyboards can be difficult to dismiss. Where appropriate, tapping outside a pop-up should dismiss it by default, reducing the risk of users becoming trapped.
10. Traditional Chinese Settings and Navigation
Some Traditional Chinese accessibility settings have vague names or descriptions. Clarify options such as VoiceOver “Hints” and reduce redundant announcements that may continue even after Hints are turned off.
Group related settings—such as Raise to Wake, Tap to Wake, and automatic brightness—on the same page. Place icons beside titles and descriptions rather than stacking them vertically, so more options fit on screen and VoiceOver users need to scroll less.
11. Ultra Low Power Mode
Add an Ultra Low Power Mode alongside Low Power Mode, with optional controls to:
- Pause animations and GIFs.
- Disable non-essential system animations and visual effects.
- Disable autoplay for message effects, video previews, and animated content.
- Disable selected display adjustments where supported.
- Turn off Liquid Glass effects where possible.
- Turn off Raise to Wake by default.
- Disable app suggestions, learning, and shortcuts in Search, widgets, and notifications.
Place these controls in one panel, with a low-power default and the option to re-enable features individually. Reducing unnecessary animation and background processing could improve battery life, responsiveness, and device temperature, depending on the device and implementation. A simpler interface could also reduce visual distractions for VoiceOver users.
12. Summary
These proposals address barriers to the everyday independence of people who are blind or have low vision. Even small changes could help users operate their devices more easily. I hope Apple will take these suggestions and users’ real-world experiences seriously.
Submitted by: A visually impaired user from Hong Kong, China
