Using the iPad is a totally different experience from using an ordinary computer because you don't have a physical keyboard or a mouse to point to the screen. You may find the touch interface even easier to use than a traditional keyboard and mouse. Plus you can use some built-in features to make your iPad even more accessible.
The iPad can invert its color scheme so that text appears in high-contrast white on black or increase its default text size. Also, your iPad can make it easy to zoom in on the screen to quickly enlarge images and text.
The iPad can also use a synthesized voice to read the various text, buttons, and controls on the screen. As you slide your fingers over the screen, your iPad will read whatever your finger is touching, so you'll know whether it's a button you want to press.
If you are deaf or hard of hearing, you may want to turn on closed captioning when you watch videos. You can also switch the audio to mono (rather than stereo), which can be easier to hear if your hearing is better in one ear than the other.
To change your iPad's accessibility settings, you need to use the following:
To make the iPad's screen more readable, you can turn on the Zoom, Large Text or while on Black features. These two features are independent—you can use them together or separately.
Turning on Zoom lets you use three fingers to zoom the screen in and out so you can read the screen more easily. Turning on Large Text changes the size of text in the Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Messages, and Notes apps. Turning on White on Black will render most text in white against a black background—as well as inverting all other colors on your iPad. To enable the accessibility features, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Settings. The Settings screen appears.
Tap General. The General settings screen appears. Scroll down until you find the Accessibility option.
Tap Accessibility. The Accessibility settings screen appears, as shown in Figure 29-1.
Tap Zoom. The Zoom settings screen appears.
Tap the Zoom on/off switch. Note the instructions on the page.
Tap the Accessibility button to return to the Accessibility settings screen (see Figure 29-1).
Tap Large Text. A screen appears, listing different text sizes, as shown in Figure 29-2.
Tap a text size and then tap the Accessibility button to return to the Accessibility settings screen.
Tap the White on Black on/off switch. When turned on, the screen displays white text on a black background.
You can also turn on the VoiceOver feature, which makes your iPad read whatever is on the screen as you touch it with your fingers. By touching the screen and hearing where your fingers are, you can control your iPad.
Note
Note: Because Zoom and VoiceOver use the same set of shortcuts, you can enable only one or the other at a time.
To turn on the VoiceOver feature, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Settings. The Settings screen appears.
Tap General. The General settings screen appears.
Tap Accessibility. The Accessibility settings screen appears (shown earlier in Figure 29-1).
Tap VoiceOver. The VoiceOver settings screen appears, as shown in Figure 29-3.
Tap the VoiceOver on/off switch.
Note
Note: Enabling this setting does more than just read the iPad's screen aloud—it actually changes iPad's behavior. Instead of single-tapping to open apps, press buttons, and toggle switches, you'll need to double-tap. You'll also need to double-tap to type. Instead of scrolling with one finger, you'll need to scroll with three fingers. This is because the usual single tap will activate VoiceOver rather than the screen element.
(Optional) Tap the Speak Hints on/off switch. Speak Hints provides a bit of context with each selection—for example, when you single-tap an app on the Home screen, your iPad will read its name aloud and say, “Double-tap to open.”
(Optional) Slide the Speaking Rate slider to make the iPad's synthesized voice speak faster or slower.
(Optional) Tap Typing Feedback to display the Typing Feedback settings screen, which lets you define whether the iPad should give you audio feedback after each character, entire words, or both. Tap an option, and then tap the VoiceOver back button to view the VoiceOver screen again.
(Optional) Tap the Use Phonetics on/off switch to make your iPad pronounce words on the screen phonetically.
(Optional) Tap the Use Pitch Change on/off switch to make the iPad's synthesized voice sound more natural.
(Optional) Tap the Use Compact Voice on/off switch. When this option is turned OFF, the iPad uses higher-quality voices. If you find these voices sometimes stutter, you can turn this feature ON to use lower-quality voices.
(Optional) Scroll down and tap Braille to allow your iPad to connect via Bluetooth to a Braille device.
(Optional) Tap the Rotor or Language Rotor on/off switches to modify the rotor, which lets you use a two-finger rotation gesture to quickly move through text displayed on the screen.
(Optional) Tap Navigate Images and choose Always, With descriptions, or Never. This lets the VoiceOver feature always skip over pictures or attempt to read their descriptions.
(Optional) Tap the Speak Notifications on/off switch. When turned OFF, your iPad won't read any notifications you receive.
Press the Home button.
Closed captioning lets you read what people in a video say. This can be handy if you are deaf or hard of hearing, or for watching a video in a noisy environment where you might not be able to hear the sound coming out of your iPad's speakers very well. To turn on closed captioning, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Settings. The Settings screen appears.
Tap Video. The Video settings screen appears.
Tap the Closed Captioning on/off switch.
Press the Home button.
For clearer audio, you might also want to try the Mono Audio setting. Just tap Settings from the Home screen, tap General, tap Accessibility, and finally tap the Mono Audio on/off button.
Going through the Settings screen every time you want to turn an accessibility feature on or off can be tedious, so to simplify this process, you can access these features by triple-clicking the Home button. This gives you the option of turning on (or off) VoiceOver or the White on Black feature. If you prefer, you can also make triple-clicking the Home button display a list of options so you can turn different accessibility features on or off.
To define triple-clicking the Home button, follow these steps:
From the Home screen, tap Settings. The Settings screen appears.
Tap General. The General settings screen appears.
Tap Accessibility. The Accessibility settings screen appears (shown earlier in Figure 29-1).
Tap Triple-click Home. The Home settings screen appears, as shown in Figure 29-4.
Tap an option, such as Toggle VoiceOver. If you choose Ask, triple-clicking the Home button displays a dialog that gives you a choice of which accessibility features to turn on or off.
Press the Home button.
The iPad's accessibility options can be great for anyone, so give them a try. You may find that you prefer reading white-on-black text or like closed captioning on videos to make them easier to watch. You can even use the FaceTime app (see Chapter 21) to communicate in sign language, giving you yet another way to chat through your iPad. With so many different tools for controlling an iPad, you just need to think about what you want to do with it next and modify your iPad to make it easy for you to use.