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Problems With iOS 7 From a Low Vision Perspective

Contributed by Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP

Later today, Apple is expected to unveil new iPhones along with their new operating system, iOS 7.  The new models will not be the only iPhones sporting a changed user interface.  All currently supported models of iPhone will be able to run iOS 7; in fact, after the release of the final version, you will likely be asked to upgrade.

I recently spoke with an unnamed assistive technology industry insider about low vision accessibility in iOS7. While a blind user will be pleased with the many improvements to the OS with VoiceOver, low vision users may face several challenges with the new interface. Here is some cautionary information about the new OS  if you are a low vision user.

Contrast:

– There is poor contrast in many areas. The translucent (frosted glass) effect behind the Notification Center and control panel makes this worse. The “improved contrast” feature flattens this translucency to a matte background.

– In the Notification Center and in Siri, a user will see white text on a black background. This is generally helpful for many low vision users as it is very strong contrast.

– The control center becomes light gray. Some controls are black which has passable contrast, but selected controls are white which is rendered nearly invisible by being overlaid on light gray.

-Some apps are rendered with black text on a white background (Stocks, and Camera by default, Siri and Notification Center with “increase contrast enabled”). Many others (Notes, Music, the iTunes and App stores, Game Center, Passbook, Calendar and Reminders main screen) are rendered with black text on a white background. The Weather app places small white text on top of weather related backgrounds which dynamically change to show the type of weather being experienced in an area.  This general inconsistency of the interface along with the control center’s already terrible contrast, means that depending on which applications a low vision user wishes to use, invert colors will invariably help with some, while rendering others unusable with a third group that will not be improved at all no matter what state the invert colors setting is set to.

 

Dynamic Text Size

– The only apps that appeared to be affected by dynamic text size were the text within e-mails. The text in the Notes app, all controls and the list of e-mails were unchanged.  There is no determined change of text size in settings app stores, Safari, the Home Screen or other pages.

-Fundamentally, this setting has not changed since iOS 6 and previous versions of the OS.

 

Icons

– Many icons are very thin and poorly  colored for their backgrounds. The icons at the bottom of the Notes app are yellow on white. And Start Alarm in Alarm Clock is light green on white.

 

Thin fonts

– System fonts are extremely thin which  compounds the difficulty with reading them. Turning on “bold text” (which requires a restart) helps, but text is still very small and more cramped in many locations than previous iOS versions.

 

While there are plenty of great new features in iOS 7, like the aforementioned control center and a more powerful Siri interface, the above may be important considerations you will want to keep in mind before making the switch.  One work around might be to use VoiceOver more extensively. Whether we like it or not, iOS 7 is coming, and it may take some time before these short comings are addressed.