iPad for Low Vision/Blindness
Jeannie Krull, MS/CCC-SLP, ATP
IPAT, 3240 15th St. S., Fargo, ND 581074
jmkrull@ndipat.org
1-800-895-4728
Best Apps for Vision Loss

Lists of Apps
•	ViA Braille Institute App-current up-to-date list of apps. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/via-by-braille-institute/id528499232?mt=8 
•	Apple’s new catalog of apps that work with VoiceOver go to iTunes and scroll down until you get to the section called “New to the Apple Store” and you see “Popular Apps using VoiceOver”

Browser
•	BigBrowser https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bigbrowser-by-braille-institute/id602799897?mt=8 
Text-to-Speech with OCR
•	KNFB Reader http://www.knfbreader.com/ 
•	Prizmo http://www.creaceed.com/iprizmo 
Magnifier
•	Camera comes with the iPad
•	VisionAssist https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/visionassist/id502356279?mt=8 
Color Idenitfier
•	Color Identifier https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/color-identifier/id363346987?mt=8 
Talking Bar Code Identifier
•	Look Tel Recognizer https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/looktel-recognizer/id501088555?mt=8 
•	Digit-Eyes https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/digit-eyes/id376424490?mt=8 
Money Identifier
•	Money Reader https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/looktel-money-reader/id417476558?mt=8 
Book readers fully accessible with Voiceover-reference:
http://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/guides/apps.html#_Toc402876362 
•	Kindle https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kindle-read-books-magazines/id302584613?mt=8 
•	Nook https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nook-read-books-magazines/id373582546?mt=8 
•	Bard Mobile https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bard-mobile/id705229586?mt=8 
•	Blio https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bard-mobile/id705229586?mt=8 
•	Read2Go https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/read2go/id425585903?mt=8 
•	Voice Dream Reader https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voice-dream-reader/id496177674?mt=8 
•	iBooks Preinstalled
General Identifiers
•	TapTapSee https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taptapsee-blind-visually-impaired/id567635020?mt=8 
•	Be My Eyes http://bemyeyes.org/ 
Braille
•	BrailleTouch works on only on iPhones allows you to use braille on the screen as input.   https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brailletouch/id579725651?mt=8 
iOS 8.3 Accessibility Features for Vision
Note: These features do not work in all apps or on all webpages.  All info obtained from Apple or on the iPad directly.
•	Accessibility Shortcut Read First
•	Changing Font Size and Boldness 
•	Button Shapes 
•	Changing Color and Contrast 
•	Speech
•	Zoom
•	VoiceOver
•	Video Description
Accessibility Shortcut IMPORTANT READ FIRST
When you triple-click the Home Button, you will be able to toggle these checked items on/off. You must set this first before turning any other Accessibility Features on or you may have difficulty turning them off. 
•	Settings>General>Accessibility>Accessibility Shortcut. Check the items that you want to have control over with the “Triple-Click Home Button” action.  
Changing Font Size and Boldness
•	Size-Settings>General>Accessibility>Larger Text. Click “Larger Accessibility Sizes” and drag slider to desired size.  Note this can distort the text in some apps.
•	Boldness- Settings>General>Accessibility>Bold Text (on/off)
Button Shapes
This feature adds a grey box around an active link making the target more visible and easier to locate. Settings>General>Accessibility>Button Shapes (on/off)
Changing Color and Contrast 
•	Invert Colors-Settings>General>Accessibility>Invert Colors (on/off)
•	Grayscale-Settings>General>Accessibility>Grayscale (on/off)
•	Increase Contrast Settings>General>Accessibility>Increase Contrast. Within this menu you can Reduce Transparency, Darken Colors and Reduce White Point (on/off)
Speech
•	Speak Selection-This setting provides speech output on text you select or highlight with your finger. Once this feature is turned on, highlight the text you want read aloud and a little menu will come up with Speak as one of the options. Touch that and your text will be read aloud. 
Settings>General>Accessibility>Speech> Speak Selection (on/off)
•	Speak Screen- This setting will speak everything on the screen when you swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. 
Settings>General>Accessibility>Speech> Speak Screen (on/off)
•	Voices-this is the section where you can change the voices from female to male. Settings>General>Accessibility>Speech> Voices> Alex or Siri or have an accent if you like such as Australian!
•	Speaking Rate- Settings>General>Accessibility>Speech> Speak Rate-drag slider
•	Highlight Content-when this feature is on, each line of text is highlighted as it is spoken aloud.  Settings>General>Accessibility>Speech> Highlight Content (on/off)
•	Speak Auto-Text-when this is on it automatically speaks auto-corrections and auto-capitalizations. Settings>General>Accessibility>Speech> Speak Auto-text (on/off)
Zoom
•	Zoom-Zoom magnifies the entire screen not just within the app. Settings>General>Accessibility>Zoom>Zoom (On/Off). Once this is turned on do the following to control it:
o	Double-tap three fingers to zoom
o	Drag three fingers to move around the screen
o	Double-tap three fingers and drag to change zoom
•	Follow Focus-When this feature is turned on “Smart Typing will switch to Window Zoom when a keyboard appears so that text is zoomed, but the keyboard is not.” Settings>General>Accessibility>Zoom>Follow Focus (On/Off)
•	Show Controller-When this is turned on, you are given quick access to the zoom controls. Settings>General>Accessibility>Zoom>Show Controller (On/Off).
o	Tap once to show the Zoom menu
o	Double tap to zoom in/out
o	When zoomed in, drag to pan zoomed content
•	Zoom Region Give you a choice of full screen zoom or have a magnifying window instead. Settings>General>Accessibility>Zoom>Zoom Region>Choose Full Screen or Window
•	Maximum Zoom Level-Set limits for how large the zoom will increase. Settings>General>Accessibility>Zoom>Maximum Zoom Level> move slider up to 15X
VoiceOver
•	VoiceOver-is a feature that reads everything aloud to help you navigate the device and use it fully without being able to see it.  Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>On/Off
o	Tap once to select an item
o	Double-tap to activate the selected item
o	Swipe three fingers to scroll
o	For all other directions, see attached manual..  
o	Here is the link to the entire iOS 8.3 manual:
https://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1595/en_US/ipad_user_guide.pdf 
•	Speaking Rate-move this slider to change the rate of the speech of VoiceOver
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Speaking Rate-move slider
•	Speak Hints-when this is turned on, “VoiceOver may tell you the name of the item and provide instructions”.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Speaking Hints (On/Off)
•	Use Pitch Change-this provides a pitch change when the first item of a group is spoken and a lower pitch when the last item is spoken.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Pitch Change (On/Off)
•	Use Sound Effects- Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Us Sound Effects (On/Off)
•	Speech-Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Speech>Choose voice
•	Braille-This is where to make changes for braille output including external keyboards.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Braille>Make changes to various settings for onscreen and external Braille input.  See manual for further descriptions.
•	Rotor-here you can choose what shows up when you swipe up or down by activating the VoiceOver Rotor.  This rotor gives you quick access to many features so you do not have to visit the settings. After choosing what will be on the Rotor (see below), simply make a turning motion with two fingers to switch between features. Then swipe up or down to control.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Rotor>Choose your settings
•	Typing Style-choose your typing style.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Typing Style>Choose between Standard Typing/Touch Typing/Direct Touch Typing
•	Phonetic Feedback-“text is read character by character. VoiceOver first speaks the character, then its phonetic equivalent—for example, “f” and then ‘foxtrot.’” 
o	Settings > General > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Phonetic Feedback>choose off/character and phonetics/phonetics only 
•	Typing Feedback-here you can choose whether text is read aloud when you type.  You can choose this for the onscreen as well as external keyboards.  You can have characters, words, or characters and words spoken as you type.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Typing Feedback>choose your feedback type.
•	Always Speak Notifications-turn this on so VoiceOver always speaks your notifications aloud. Perfect if you wear a Bluetooth headset.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Always Speak Notifications (On/off)
•	Navigate Images-when this feature is on “you can choose to skip all images or only those without descriptions”.
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>Navigate Images>choose Always/With descriptions/Never
•	Large Cursor-when this is turned on the border of the highlighted items in VoiceOver is larger. 
o	Settings>General>Accessibility>VoiceOver>large Cursor>on/off
•	Screen Curtain-with VoiceOver on-triple tap with 3 fingers on the screen.  The screen will darken saving battery.
Video Description
•	When this feature is turned on it plays video descriptions automatically when available. 
•	Settings>General>Accessibility>Video Description>Prefer Video Descriptions (On/Off)