Mamamagpie 6 points 1y ago
These questions are asked so often they should be in FAQ, but you guys can’t be bothered to search the sub, why would you stop and read the FAQ?
Cryptic_Spren97 3 points 1y ago
Hi there. Great question, and I'm more than happy to answer it.
I'm totally blind and have been all my life, and I currently have an iPhone 12 (which is entirely usable). In fact, I'm using it right now to respond to this thread.
I use a screen reader on both my laptop and phone. This takes all of the visual elements shown on the screen, and converts it to speech. My mac has several keyboard shortcuts that have been made for use with a screen reader, and I use the keyboard only, not the mouse. My phone is a little different, as (being an iPhone) it has a touch screen. All apple devices have a built in screen reader called Voiceover. I use this on my computer to, but in a different way. When it comes to the phone, I mainly use a variety of gestures (along with haptic feedback) to navigate. It's not so great with images etc, but with all of the developments in technology, there are plenty of applications that do the job. Seeing AI is my favourite.
I use a lot of different gestures when interacting with my phone. Here is a list of the most common:
Swipe to the left, move to the previous element on the screen.
Swipe to the right, move to the next element on the screen.
Swipe up, move to the previous option in a menu.
Swipe down, move to the next option in a menu.
Tap once, read out whatever's at the position I tapped.
Tap twice in quick succession, select an item or confirm.
When typing, I will put my finger on the screen, then drag it around till I find the right letter. I can do this very quickly as I've touch typed for a long time, so know the layout of a qwerty keyboard well. For example, if I touch the screen and voiceover says "m” and I'm looking for j, I know that I will need to move once up, and once to the left. When I'm on the correct letter, I lift my finger and it is typed.
When scrolling through reddit, I start with the voiceover cursor at the top left of the screen. I flick to the right, and each time voiceover reads a sub-reddit. For example "r/Blind, double tap to open." Once I hear the sub-reddit I want, I'll double tap and it will take me into it. I can then do the same as before (flick left and right to read through the threads) and I can also use headings or links to make it faster. To do that, I use the voiceover rota. I put 2 fingers on the screen, and twist them like I'm turning a nob. Each time I twist, it will take me to something like headings, links, characters, words, speaking rate etc. I can therefore read the post word by word, letter by letter or skip to a link or heading.
Once I've found the thread I want, I'll swipe down till I hear "view all comments" then double tap to select. I'll read the comments by swiping left and right, and if I want to do something with the comment (for example upvote, downvote or reply), I'll swipe up and down.
I hope this explanation makes sense. :) Feel free to ask further questions, if you want me to clarify anything.