Accessibility features on the

iPad for iOS 9

Aubrey Redifer
 Go to Settings > General > Accessibility >
AssistiveTouch and turn AssistiveTouch on.

You’ll see a small square show up in the

1- Assistive Touch lower right hand corner of your screen

which will remain there wherever you go on
(picture shown on next slide) the iPad (you can move it into different
corners, but it won’t disappear). Tap this
square to bring up the AssistiveTouch menu.

This feature allows you to do simple actions

in one area.

2- Guided Access
(picture shown on next slide)
Here’s how it works: Go to Settings >
General > Accessibility and turn Guided
Access on. You’ll need to set up a passcode
to turn Guided Access off.
Now when you’re in your app, triple click
the home button to open up your Guided
Access options. Draw a box around the
areas you don’t want your child to access.
Click start and you’re back in the app, but
now those areas are not accessible. Those
areas are also grayed out a bit so they are
less likely to draw your child’s attention,
too.
 Go to Settings > General > Accessibility >
Switch Control to turn Switch Control on.
You can then tell the iPad how many
switches you wish to use and you can fully
customize how the switches interact with
the iPad.

3-Switch Control Switch access for the iPad allows users to

interact with one or two large buttons
(picture shown on next slide)
rather than have to maneuver through the
complexities of the touch screen. The iPad
has always been switch accessible,
particularly with apps designed specifically
for switches, but starting in iOS7 the iPad
now allows for complete system-wide
switch control.
 Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech
> Speak Screen.

iOS9 updates also allow you to speed up the

rate of speech for VoiceOver more than
before. Even though you may not be able to
understand the speech at a very quick

4-Voiceover
speed, your child may and this can be a
huge advantage for an auditory learner!

You can also turn on Audio Descriptions for

accessible videos in iOS9, too, with
increased accessibility in iTunes Movies and
TV. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility
> Audio Descriptions and now the accessible
audio descriptions on videos will play
automatically whenever available.
Citations
Bobnar, Amber. “Top 10 IPad & iOS9 Accessibility Features.”
WonderBaby.org, 22 Apr. 2017,
http://www.wonderbaby.org/articles/ipad-accessibility.