Night Shift

Scientific studies have shown that blue light, like that emitted from an iOS device’s screen, makes it harder to sleep at night. Night Shift reduces the amount of blue light.

Here’s how to use Night Shift:

• Enable Night Shift manually: You can go to Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift, but it’s far easier to trigger it from Control Center (see Discover Control Center Functions). When enabled, Night Shift remains on until sunrise.

• Set a Night Shift schedule: You can set Night Shift to turn on at night in Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift. The default schedule is from sunset to sunrise, but you can change those to custom times.

• Adjust Night Shift: In Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift, you can adjust a slider to maker the effect more or less warm. The warmer the temperature, the more yellow the screen appears.

Accessibility for Everyone

Several accessibility settings are useful for almost anyone. You can find them in Settings > General > Accessibility:

• Magnifier: The Magnifier lets you use your iOS device like a magnifying glass. Enable the setting and triple-press the Home button to activate it:

  • Zoom: Use the slider to zoom in or out.

  • Get more light: Tap the flash icon to turn the LED on (if available).

  • Lock the focus: Tap the lock icon.

  • Freeze the image: Tap the Take Photo button to grab a freeze frame. Tap the button a second time to unfreeze it.

  • Adjust the color: Tap the filters icon to adjust display settings and access a range of color filters.

• Change text size: Tap Larger Text. Drag the slider to shrink or enlarge text. If you turn on the Larger Accessibility Sizes switch, you can make text even larger.

• Bold Text: Many users have complained that the text in iOS is too light. To fix this, enable the Bold Text switch. Tap Continue when asked whether it’s okay to restart the device. Once iOS restarts, all system text will be bold.

• Button Shapes: Tired of buttons that are ill-defined text labels? You can add a button outline by enabling Button Shapes.

• On/Off Labels: Do you have trouble telling whether setting switches are on or off? Turn on On/Off Labels. Disabled switches show a 0 (zero), while enabled switches contain a 1 (the 1 looks like a vertical line).

• AssistiveTouch: Do you have an issue with a repetitive strain injury, arthritis, or perhaps a broken button on your device? Tap AssistiveTouch and turn on AssistiveTouch to place a virtual button on your screen to simulate the Home button; bring up Notification Center, Siri, or Control Center; emulate gestures like pinches; and many other things.

• Reduce Motion: iOS has a lot of neat animations, but they make some people physically ill and other people find them distracting. You can turn off extraneous animations with the Reduce Motion switch.

• Disable Vibrations: You can disable all iPhone vibrations by toggling Vibration off.

iOS for the Visually Impaired

A few of the options already described in this chapter might prove useful to those who have trouble seeing, but the choices noted here, all available in Settings > General > Accessibility, should be especially helpful:

• Color Filters: iOS has several screen filters in Display Accommodations > Color Filters. Enable Color Filters and then choose an option. There are special color filters for protanopia (insensitivity to red light), deuteranopia (insensitivity to green light), and tritanopia (insensitivity to blue light).

• Invert Colors: If you’re colorblind or having difficulty perceiving contrast, enabling Invert Colors in Accessibility > Display Accommodations may help. (Invert Colors disables Night Shift.)

• VoiceOver: You don’t have to see to be able to use iOS, thanks to VoiceOver, which reads individual screen elements to you. Enable it by tapping VoiceOver. Turn on the switch and configure its options.

  If you are setting up VoiceOver because you need it, refer to Apple’s VoiceOver page to get an idea of what VoiceOver can make possible.

  With VoiceOver on, tap an element to have your device speak its name to you. Double-tap an element to activate it. Use three fingers to scroll. For comprehensive guidance, you’ll want a copy of the book iOS Access for All, by Shelly Brisbin.

• Speak Screen: In addition to describing interface elements, iOS can read a screen of text if you tap Speech and enable Speak Screen. To highlight text as it’s spoken, turn on Highlight Content.

  With Speak Screen on, swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen to have iOS begin speaking. A Settings box appears to let you control playback (Figure 74). Tap the x to stop the talking and dismiss the box.

  

• Zoom: The Zoom virtual magnifying glass makes screen elements larger.

iOS for the Hard of Hearing and Deaf

iOS offers several accessibility features for the deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing impaired:

• Software TTY: iOS has long supported hardware teletypewriter devices for the hard of hearing, but iOS can place TTY calls without dedicated hardware. Enable Software TTY in Settings > General > Accessibility > RTT/TTY and you’ll see an option to use TTY the next time you place a phone call.

• Hearing aids: You can connect your device to Made for iPhone hearing aids in Settings > General > Accessibility > MFi Hearing Devices, and switch on Hearing Aid Compatibility in Settings > General Accessibility to reduce radio interference.

• Indicator lights: On an iOS device with an LED camera flash, you can enable LED Flash for Alerts in Settings > General > Accessibility. When a call or other notification arrives, the LED lights up briefly.

Other Accessibility Options

Here are a few accessibility features that didn’t fit elsewhere:

• Auto-answer calls: iOS can automatically answer calls. Visit Settings > General > Accessibility > Call Audio Routing > Auto-Answer Calls and turn on Auto-Answer Calls. After enabling it, you can adjust how long iOS waits before automatically answering the call.

• Disable Shake to Undo: Are you always triggering the Shake to Undo functionality accidentally? Turn it off in Settings > General > Accessibility > Shake to Undo.

• Guided Access: To lock a device into a single app—so the user (like a young child) can’t exit that app—tap Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access. There’s also a Control Center button to enable it—see Discover Control Center Functions.

• Subtitles: You can turn on subtitles in supported apps by tapping Settings > General > Accessibility > Subtitles & Captioning and then enabling Closed Captions + SDH.

• Switch Control: One of the more interesting settings in Settings > General > Accessibility is Switch Control, which lets you navigate your device by tilting your head in view of the front-facing camera, with an external Bluetooth switch or by tapping the screen. See the Apple article Use Switch Control to navigate your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touchfor more.

• Touch Accommodations: If a motor impairment makes using a touchscreen difficult, check out Settings > General > Accessibility > Touch Accommodations to tweak how the screen responds to touch.