Tech without eyes: What is iOS and iPadOS 14 like from a blind person's point of view?

If you follow the happenings in the Apple world at least a little, you surely know very well that Apple released iOS 14, iPadOS 14, watchOS 7 and tvOS 14 to the public. Within these new systems, we have seen pleasant changes in the field of design, the addition of widgets or the ability to display of incoming calls in a banner. Some changes have also been made for visually impaired users - but these are not revolutionary changes, and I am personally rather disappointed than excited about them. In today's article, we will show what the new iOS and iPadOS are like from a blind person's point of view.

Intelligent VoiceOver

One of the very interesting new features that you will find in iOS 14 is the intelligent VoiceOver. This setting is hidden in Settings -> Accessibility -> VoiceOver -> Smart VoiceOver, unfortunately, however, it's only found on iPhone X and later and some new iPads. There are three main items in this setting: Image captions, Screen content recognition a Text recognition. Image descriptions work only in English, on the other hand, quite reliably. Of course, it is true that some third-party recognizers can create a more detailed label, but you have to wait quite a long time for the software to evaluate it. In the case of a native function, a picture is enough go over, and if you want to have the description repeated, tap with three fingers. Regarding the recognition of the screen content, the reading of inaccessible elements in individual applications should work. Unfortunately, after enabling this feature, VoiceOver crashes, both in native apps and in third-party apps – so rather than accessibility, all I got was a significant slowdown. Unfortunately, text descriptions in images do not work very reliably either.

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Even better customizability

VoiceOver has always been a reliable reader, but one that didn't adapt well. Fortunately, in iOS and iPadOS 13, the ability to edit gestures, automatically change the reader's voice in certain applications, or turn sounds on and off came. Not much has been added in the new system, but at least there are some new functions. For example, in the VoiceOver settings in the section Detail you will find options for reading or not reading some data, such as table headers, deleting individual characters and others.

Unfixed errors

However, in addition to the features, there are quite a few bugs in both systems. Probably the biggest ones are the poorly functioning widgets, when their functionality has moved a bit further since the first beta version, but there is, for example, a problem with moving them to the desktop between applications. Other errors are no longer among the major ones, probably the most painful is the deteriorated response in some parts of the system, but mostly this is an isolated problem, which is also only temporary.

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Personally, I think there have been nice changes to VoiceOver, but not significant ones. I probably wouldn't mind if Apple had worked more on accessibility since the first beta version. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and for visually impaired beta testers, working with the system was literally a pain at times. In iPadOS, for example, there was only a side panel that was difficult to use, where it was practically impossible to navigate with a screen reader. Now the accessibility is a little better and I would recommend updating it, but I still think that Apple could have worked on it at least a little better even in the first beta versions.